


Oretachi No Seishun (Our Youth) BEING REWRITTEN

by Mazuru



Category: Gokusen - All Media Types, Gokusen 3
Genre: Adopted Children, Ballet, Canon-Typical Violence, Coming of Age, Eating Disorders, F/M, Family Drama, Female Friendship, French Characters, French culture, High School, Japan, Japanese Culture, Male-Female Friendship, Mental Health Issues, Past Abuse, Past Rape/Non-con, School Festivals, School Uniforms, Sexism, Sexual Content
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-27
Updated: 2019-10-07
Packaged: 2020-09-28 00:28:05
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 3
Words: 25,441
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20416851
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mazuru/pseuds/Mazuru
Summary: Chairman Akagi allows five girls to attend Akadou in hopes of creating a Co-ed school in the future. Watch as Yankumi and the 3-D boys uncover their secrets, while learning about themselves and adulthood. Includes mature themes like mental illness, sexual assault, mild sexuality; etc. Drama-verse, but some changes to fit into the story. BEING REWRITTEN





	1. Episode I - Part I: Spring Blossoms

Episode I - Part I: Spring Blossoms

While she stood near her friends' home, Sakurai Naoko had her tilted upwards to gaze at the sakura petals falling from the trees. She smoothed out the wrinkles of her white, knee-length sundress with a pink flower print, sighing contently. Naoko had black loose, curly hair with large dark brown eyes and a round face. She had a soft, rosy complexion, a rather large bust with curves, and stood at five-seven.

Naoko was so entranced by the beauty of the sakura petals that was fluttering near her, she jumped out of her skin when she heard a door slam. She turned around and positioned herself in a ridiculous ninja-like stance. Naoko saw her friend, Kobayashi Hikari.

Hikari's velvety red hair was styled with a few left-sided braids, the rest was flowing in shiny waves. Her sharp black eyes was covered in a dark misty looking eyeshadow and mascara. She appeared to be athletic with a light golden undertone as she stood at five-four. Hikari wore a simple navy blue shirt, white jean capris, and blue worn-out sneakers.

"What in the world are you doing?" Hikari questioned.

"What?" Naoko realized her embarrassing pose and straightened up. Her cheeks were covered in a deep pink tint. "O-oh! Sorry, I was trying to look threatening just in case if somebody wanted to mess with me."

Hikari snorted, "Right. Keep telling yourself that." she rolled her eyes when she noticed Naoko's pout, "Aren't we supposed to be meeting the others?"

"Oh yeah, right!" Naoko exclaimed. "Let's get going!"

With a bright smile, Naoko walked along the pavement with Hikari beside her.

Hordes of cars covered the roads as the crowds of people covered the streets. The sun was high and bright, the pink sakura petals blanketed the city.

Heading near a trio of older-looking boys with an air that screamed trouble. Kyou heard one of them whistle at her, while smirking lewdly.

"What's with the long face, Pretty Lady?" said a boy with straggly dirty blond hair.

"Yeah, give us a smile." exclaimed a boy with the face of a pug.

Kyou tightened her grip on her black lacy umbrella as she walked past the trio.

A boy with a half-shaven head sneered at Kyou, "Fuck you, Freaky Bitch."

Kyou stopped walking and snapped her head back to give the boys a venomous glare, but they had already started to walk away in another direction.

Kyou released an irritated huff and continued her walk.

Tachibana Kyou had black hair, tied in a French braid thrown over her shoulder with a straight-cut fringe. Her round black eyes were covered with mascara, dark purple eyeshadow; curved lips was painted with a black shade of lipstick. She had a cool pale tint with a skinny physique as she stood at five-six. Kyou wore a layered knee-length dress with a black and red plaid print; long, striped monotoned socks and a mini, black leather jacket with short sleeves.

When Kyou walked by a ramen shop with a large bear on the banner, her shoulder knocked into someone else's arm. Kyou didn't pay the person any mind, even when he shouted at her.

"Oi!" he yelled, snatching her arm.

Kyou looked at the boy touching her with an annoyed expression. He appeared to be either seventeen or eighteen. He had short dark brown hair with multiple blond streaks and pierced ears. He had a slim frame and was at least five inches taller than her. The boy wore a simple white shirt with black, spiky lettering and black torn jeans. Honestly, he looked like a delinquent.

Kyou almost rolled her eyes. She asked, "Yes?"

"That hurt." he growled.

Kyou sucked in a breath and released it through her nose, "Let me go or you'll lose an arm." she calmly stated.

"What?"

"I said let go me or you'll lose an arm." replied Kyou, looking into his dark eyes. "It isn't smart to grab someone for the simple act of bumping into you. The person could have a knife and stab you to death or strangle you."

"Are you threatening me?"

Kyou shook her head, "No. I'm just giving you a warning that could save your life." her lips twitched. "It's my good deed for today. Besides, is it really a good idea to manhandle a defenseless girl in broad daylight with so many people watching?"

The delinquent boy looked around and saw people staring at them. Some appeared to be scared, some looked worried, and a few whispered amongst each other. He released her arm with an irritated sigh.

Kyou flexed her arm and gripped her hand around her lacy umbrella. She looked up at him, "Wise choice, Mystery Boy. Make sure you take my words for consideration. There are too many young people dying these days."

The boy gave her a very confused look, as he shoved his hands into his pockets. Then he tsked, "Whatever. Just watch where you're going next time."

You should do the same. "Hm." Kyou said, instead of what she thought.

Kyou turned her heel and walked away from the boy, still feeling irritated.

The boy, Kamiya watched the girl walk away for a second before continuing his walk.

"What a weirdo." he muttered.

Turning a page of her novel, The Count of Monte Christo, Nakahara Melina looked up to meet the unsure eyes of the middle-aged waiter. He had a notepad and pen in his hands, waiting for her to answer. Earlier, he called her Miss in English with a heavy accent.

"I'll have an iced coffee, the Focaccia sandwich and Mason Jar Salad. Please."

Melina waited for the waiter to respond. The waiter looked surprised at her perfect Japanese.

The waiter nodded, still surprised and took their menus. He gave Melina a polite smile, "Your Japanese is very good."

As the waiter left, Melina muttered, "I am Japanese."

Melina had a chestnut hue to her skin with thick and curly black hair, her curl pattern looked almost like "s" shaped. Her eyes were dark brown with a heart-shaped face. She had the frame of a dancer with slightly wider hips as she stood at five-six. Melina wore a simple deep red shirt with a white, short-sleeved jacket and black jeans.

Before Melina could return to her novel, she noticed from the corner of her eye, a pale-skinned girl who looked not much older than her and Ayumu was staring at her. Melina turned her head to look straight at the girl. The girl looked down and focused on her food. Melina sighed through her nose, closing her book and placing beside her.

Ayumu glanced up from her phone to look at her friend. Immediately, she recognized the irked look on her face. "Melina," she said. "He just didn't know."

Melina didn't say anything, despite looking like she wanted to say something. Begrudgingly, Melina said, "I know. But sometimes I just get annoyed of people assuming I'm not Japanese. They assume I'm American or something. I don't even speak English."

"Yeah, your English is the worst." Ayumu tried joking with her.

Despite her annoyance, Melina's lips twitched before the corners tilted upwards a little. "Don't be mean to me, Miss. Genius."

"I'm not a genius. Hikari is." Ayumu smiled, displaying her dimples.

"Oh, right. Miss. Genius Number Two."

Ayumu giggled, "That's too long of a name."

Kochiyama Ayumu was a small, petite girl, only standing at four-eleven. She had a light golden appearance with freckles sprinkled across her nose and cheeks. Ayumu had honey-blonde, wavy hair with black eyes. She was dressed in a baby blue blouse with a pleated knee-length skirt drenched in dark red, her red and white striped brim hat was on the café table.

Melina and Ayumu was sitting in a café called Burn Side St Café in the Harajuku district, waiting for their friends to arrive.

"When do you think-" Melina started.

"Melina! Ayumu!" said Naoko, walking towards the table, making her presence known.

Naoko received a few looks. Most of them were from men, whose eyes were on her chest. Naoko's smile twitched downwards. Hikari, who was walking beside Naoko, glared at all of them. The men shivered under her piercing gaze and turned their eyes elsewhere.

"Were you waiting long?" asked Naoko, looking a bit more comfortable once she sat down with her friends. She was next to Melina as Hikari took a seat by Ayumu.

Ayumu shook her head, "No, not really. We just got here, like twenty minutes ago."

"Hello, everyone."

Ayumu, Melina, Naoko; Hikari jumped at the sudden appearance of Kyou, whose face was blank but her eyes showed amusement.

"Jes-! Wear a bell or something, Kyou!" exclaimed Melina.

Kyou gave her a very tiny smirk, "Careful. You almost said the Lord's name in vain, Modesty."

Melina almost scowled at the name. Kyou took a seat next to Hikari.

"Something happened to me when walking here." started Kyou. Everyone looked at her curiously. "I was catcalled and manhandled."

Naoko's mouth dropped, "You weren't hurt, were you?"

Kyou shook her head. "No. I was catcalled by a group of boys, who was trying too hard to be edgy. Then I was manhandled by Mystery Boy."

"Mystery Boy?"

Kyou nodded, "The name I gave him. I have a feeling I might meet him again."

Hikari rolled her eyes. "Right. Afterwards, you're going to see dead people."

"I've been trying to for years, but nothing has worked."

Melina just looked at her, "I can never tell if you're serious or just joking."

Moments later, the middle-aged waiter came with Melina's order and Ayumu's seasonal fruit pancakes and café au lait. He took the orders of Naoko, Hikari, and Kyou, who ordered three stacks of pancakes for herself.

The four girls started to talk amongst themselves about Melina's ballet studio's production of Giselle and Ayumu helping her parents with their new clothing designs. The conversation started to steer about Akadou Academy.

"I wonder what it's going to be like at that school?" Naoko questioned, taking a bite of her eggslut.

In the next couple of days, the girls would start attending an all-boys school for a co-ed project created by the Chairman of Akadou, Akagi Ryoko, who wanted her school to be mixed for the next year. Sumiyama Yukina, the Head of Elize Girls' School agreed to allow a few of her students to be apart of the project. The students, who wanted to be apart of the project took the Akadou Academy's entrance exam. Only a very few wanted to be apart of the project, but only Sakurai Naoko, Kobayashi Hikari, Nakahara Melina; Tachibana Kyou, and Kochiyama Ayumu passed the exam.

Hikari scoffed, "We're going to an all-boys school. The boys might chase us around like horny fools. But at least we're not wearing mini skirts. Can you just imagine if that happened?"

"All I care about is the bathroom situation." said Ayumu taking a moment to bite and chew her pancakes. "Are they going to put up a sign for our bathroom? And most importantly, are the bathrooms going to be clean? I refuse to sit on a toilet that was probably covered in God knows what." she cringed.

"I asked Akiyama-sensei that when I saw her not too long ago." Melina said. "She told me that the Chairman took care of that for us. The Chairman made one of the bathrooms that's near our class into a girl's bathroom and that the nurse is a woman, so if we have any...feminine problems, we can always go to her."

Ayumu sighed in relief. "Good. I just hope that it's a nice bathroom."

"I just hope that the boys are nice too." said Naoko. No one caught it, but she shivered a bit.

"Akadou is well-known of causing problems." replied Kyou, but she paused in thought. "Although I shouldn't judge them so quickly. We can't trust them quickly before getting to know them yet. They could turn out to be maniacs underneath the delinquency. I don't want to deal with a madmen in the beginning of the year."

"Oh, so you want to deal with madmen later in the year then?" Hikari asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Maybe." Kyou simply said.


	2. Episode I - Part II: Class 3-D

_French sentences and words are italicized like this.  
_

_Novel titles are italicized._

* * *

Episode I - Part II: Class 3-D

Hikari stood in front of the bathroom mirror, straightening the black tie of her dark blue seifuku. She combed the unbraided side of her velvety hair with her fingers before grabbing a brush to make it less messy. Once she was done, Hikari looked down at her seifuku and smoothed it out to get rid of the wrinkles. She sighed.

It was her first day at Akadou, an all-boys' school. Although, needless to say, Hikari's nervousness was honestly high. She took a deep breath before exhaling through her mouth, calming her nerves.

Hikari checked her hair again before leaving the bathroom to get her white purse she used as her school bag from her small bedroom that was across the hall from the bathroom. She walked into the messy living room, where the only source light came from the cracks of the window curtains. Hikari saw a woman with messy, short black hair. She wore a light pink robe and white pajamas and was sitting on the couch. She was nursing a cup of mint tea that Hikari made for her earlier. She was slouched to the side, her elbow on the couch's arm, staring at nothing in particular.

"Mom, I'm going to school. Okay." Hikari said with a soft, quiet voice. Her hands tightened around her purse.

Nishimura Yuki only moved her watery eyes to meet her daughter's. She only said, "Hmm...Have a good day." then she went back to stare at nothing.

Hikari only nodded before going to the door and walking out of it. As she held the door knob, Hikari let out a sigh before walking to school, seeing groups of various students walking on the sidewalks.

* * *

Ayumu scrunched up her nose as she glared at her dark blue skirt, fumbling with it. The skirt was too long for her, only going past her knees. She cursed herself for being a short girl. Maybe Akadou will fix it for her when she arrives?

When Ayumu was about to walk out the door, she heard the running of a pair of feet coming towards her.

"Ayumu! Don't think about leaving, yet!" chirped Kochiyama Hiroki, he held up an expensive looking camera with a smile. Hiroki was a round figured man with thinning black hair and small eyes. He was in an expensive black suit with a silk red tie. "We have to take pictures. It's not everyday you send your only daughter to an all-boys' school." he looked over his shoulder and yelled, "Darling, are you going to come and join us?!"

"Coming, honey!" An average heighted woman with a willowy figure came into the living room. She had curly, light blonde hair and black eyes. She was dressed in a simple knee-length, yet elegant lavender dress with a white pearl necklace.

Kochiyama Yoko had a huge smile on her face, she pinched her daughter's cheeks with a coo. She laughed when Ayumu tried to swat her hands away with a blush. Yoko pulled Ayumu into a hug as she held up the peace sign. "Smile, Ayu-chan."

Ayumu sighed, rolling her eyes fondly. She held up the peace sign with a smile. Finally, the camera clicked.

* * *

Kyou reached over the stove to shut it off before placing two mini hamburger steaks inside her black bento box. When she put the lid on the bento, Kyou heard the faint sounds of a man shouting coming closer towards her. Soon enough, Kyou saw a very red faced man, who was tall and stocky, bustling into the kitchen. He had black and white peppered hair with small, intimidating black eyes. The man was dressed in a black suit without the jacket and black tie. Tachibana Yuu continued to scream into his cell phone as he went to the fridge to grab a bottle of water.

Kyou figured that he was screaming at his secretary or something. Honestly, she couldn't care less.

When Yuu slammed the fridge door, he paused, finally took notice of his daughter. "Oh, hey, Ryou." he went back to screaming like a banshee into the phone as he walked out of the kitchen.

"It's Kyou, Yuu." Kyou deadpanned.

As Kyou was putting her bento into her Hangry and Angry backpack, she heard a pair of feet walking past the kitchen. She noticed a thin woman with long brown hair and brown eyes. She was dressed in a knee-length, cyan colored dress and a white faux fur jacket. The woman was carrying her black, strappy heels in one hand, the other hand was scratching her messy hair. Tachibana Himeko was coming home late, again.

Himeko walked passed the kitchen, not even noticing her daughter, and walked up the stairs. She obviously didn't care if anyone heard her footsteps.

Kyou sighed through her nose and zipped her bag before going to the door, putting on her red shoes and slamming the door as she left the house.

* * *

Melina stuffed her European pink pointe shoes into her hot pink gym bag and ran down the stairs to go to the kitchen for a quick breakfast. When she reached the kitchen, Melina was greeted by a very uncomfortable sight: her parents making out.

Nakahara Kyousuke was a tall Japanese man with slicked black hair and sharp, black eyes; he was dressed in a simple gray suit with black tie. He had his arms around the hips of a curvy woman, who had a deep shade of mahogany overtone. Her shoulder-length, thick and curly black hair looked like corkscrews and her eyes were dark brown. Nakahara Celina was dressed in a deep red women's suit with a white blouse underneath. She had her arms around Kyousuke's neck, planting kisses on his lips, while saying sweet words to him in French. They were leaning on the kitchen table, not noticing their daughter standing at the kitchen entrance.

"Eww!" shrieked Melina. She pretended to vomit with her tongue out.

The two loving parents pulled away from each other. Celine was blushing and Kyousuke was smiling with satisfaction, as he sat down at the table.

_"Good morning, Melina. How are you?"_ said Celine in her thick French accent. She was fixing her suit jacket, trying to calm down after her make out session with her husband. Celine took a seat next to her husband at the table.

_"I'm doing good, mama."_ Melina responded, trying to get rid of the image she just saw between her parents. She walked over to the refrigerator and grabbed one of the three mason jars. Like the other two jars, it was filled with her newly homemade non-dairy coffee creamer - caramel salt flavor. After making herself some coffee and placing the jar back into the fridge, she sat across from her father, Kyousuke, with a steaming mug in hand. Making her breakfast complete, Melina took a croissant off of a plate filled with the bread and placing it beside her omelette.

The three Nakahara family members were speaking lightly, then they heard footsteps coming down the stairs and walking towards the kitchen. A tall young man with chestnut tint came into the kitchen and smiled at his family, saying _good morning, everyone_. He had dark brown hair styled in a buzz-cut with dark brown eyes and the beginnings of a five o'clock shadow. The man was in a simple dark green sweatshirt with jeans. Nakahara Chauncey sat down at the table next to his younger sister and across his mother.

"So, how do you feel about going to an all-boys' school?" asked Chauncey, spreading butter on his croissant.

Nobody noticed that Kyousuke tightened his hand around his fork, grumbling incoherent words.

Melina shrugged, "It'll be different, but it will probably be the same at any other school." she took a bite of her omelette. "Boring teachers and too much homework. You know the usual."

"Akiyama-sensei was far from boring." Chauncey said.

Melina hummed in thought, "Too true, onii-chan. Too true."

"I have an idea," started Kyousuke. "how about Chauncey or I walk you to school." his lips turned into a wry frown. "I don't trust those boys. They could...flip up your skirt or...take pictures of your underwear when you are not looking or something."

Both Melina and Celine rolled their eyes, as Chauncey looked like he was actually considering to do the action. When Melina saw his face, she flicked his forehead and stuck her tongue out when she received a glare.

"_Mon Chèri_, Melina is a big girl. She can take care of herself, if someone messes with her." Celine placed a gentle hand on top of his own. "You don't need to worry. Besides, she'll tell us if she has a problem. Won't you, Melina?"

Melina looked both at her parents and nodded "Yes, mama. I will." she sent a reassuring smile to her father. "I'll be fine, papa."

Kyousuke looked at his daughter, then at his wife's hand, caressing it with his thumb. He looked back at his daughter and sighed, "Fine, but if I hear anything, I will be going to that school and castrate everything that has a male genitalia. You hear me?"

"Yes, papa."

"Good." Kyousuke went back to his meal, still holding his wife's hand.

Melina checked her watch and shot up from the table. "It's almost time for the ceremony." she picked up her dishes, rinsed them quickly and placed them on the other side of the sink.

The young dancer returned to the refrigerator to grab her snack and lemon-flavored water for ballet class and put them in her bag. Melina kissed the cheeks of her family and headed for the door, putting her shoes on. When she put her hand on the doorknob, she looked over her shoulder and said, "Oh, and papa, don't send onii-chan to follow me to school. Bye." with that, Melina went out and headed to school.

Kyousuke simply stared at the door, "Am I that obvious?"

"Yes." responded Celine and Chauncey, trying not to laugh at Kyousuke's grumbling.

* * *

Naoko placed the hot, steaming bowl of white rice down on the table, alongside the grilled salmon and miso soup. Naoko yawned and raised her hand to rub her eyes, but decided to only blink them, thinking it would be best not to ruin her concealer. When Naoko turned around to place the kitchen utensils into the sink, she heard stumbling feet coming to the kitchen.

The teen girl looked over her shoulder to see a woman with black hair, styled in a wavy pixie-cut with dark brown eyes. She was in a short lime green nighty and a white silk robe. Tokuda Saeko came into the kitchen, scratching her messy hair as the other hand dug through her robe pocket for a cigarette. When she lit the cigarette, she took notice of her daughter looking at her.

"What?" she snapped, then grumbled something about a hangover.

"Oh, um, I made you breakfast, mom." Naoko fumbled with the hem of her skirt.

Saeko looked down at the food on the table. She inhaled her cigarette smoke and exhaled it through her nose. "What if I don't want to eat it?"

Naoko blinked before blushing with embarrassment, "O-oh, well, you don't have too. You can eat it later or something."

"Hmm."

It was silent for a full minute before Naoko grabbed her red backpack off of the counter. "Well, goodbye, mom." she headed towards the door, put her shoes on and left to go to school.

With the cigarette in her mouth, Saeko went over to the table and looked down at the food. She picked up the tray and walked over to the trashcan. Saeko dumped the whole thing into the trash with a sneer. She went back to her room to go back to sleep.

* * *

As the pink cherry blossoms fell on the ground, it surrounded the various different students heading towards their respective schools. Momo Girls High School, Ara High, Aoshiba; and Kaitoku students were either talking amongst their friends or riding their bicycles in peace. They'd ignored the velvety haired girl walking by herself.

"Hikari!"

Hikari turned around to see two of her friends. Naoko sitting on the backseat of Melina's bicycle, as the halfu was pedaling it. Melina stopped the bicycle in front of Hikari, the two smiled at their friend.

"Good morning, Hikari." said Melina and Naoko.

"Hey, you guys." Hikari responded, fixing her purse strap.

"You alright, Hikari?" asked Naoko.

Hikari waved her hand carelessly. "Yeah, I'm fine." she looked at the bicycle and the handlebars. "Can I hitch a ride from you?"

"Huh? Yeah, sure." Melina patted the handlebars with a grin. "Hop on."

"Are you sure that's safe?" questioned Naoko, worriedly.

Melina scoffed, "Of course it is. You are riding with me. Now," Melina and Naoko felt the bicycle tilt a bit once Hikari climbed on the bars. "Let's go!" Melina started to peddle, stumbling a bit, but once she got use to it, she sped up and rode past the other students.

* * *

The boys of the Akadou school just stared as they walked by the girls. Ayumu and Kyou were waiting at the school gates for their friends to show up; however, they did notice the looks they were given by the boys. Wanting to be kind, Ayumu looked at some of the boys and waved at them with a smile. She could have sworn one of them swooned and waved with grins.

"It's like these boys has never seen a girl before." said Kyou, staring back at the boys with an unreadable expression.

"Well, they do go to an all-boys school." Ayumu pointed out. "They must be curious of why there are a couple of girls at their school."

"Hmm..." Kyou looked to the left of her and saw Melina pedaling her bicycle with Naoko and Hikari being the passengers. "Hey..." she shook Ayumu's shoulder to get her attention. Once she did, Kyou pointed at the wobbly bicycle coming towards them.

"Should we help them?" Ayumu questioned, looking at the bicycle with concern in her eyes.

Kyou said, "Nah, I want to see how this ends." she folded her arms and waited.

When Melina was coming close to Kyou and Ayumu, she stopped her bicycle, but the added weight on the handlebars caused Hikari to fall frontwards landing on her knees and hands. Hikari heard laughter coming from a group of boys, she whipped her head and glared at them. She was satisfied when she saw them shiver and quickly walked away. Hikari sighed, she got up from the ground and dusted off the dirt from her knees and hands. She smoothed out her uniform and straightened her purse strap.

"Are you okay?" Naoko asked, checking if she has scratches on her body.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Hikari said, irritated. She checked her watch and said, "We should go in. The ceremony is about to start."

The other girls looked a little unsure. But once Hikari reassured them that she was fine, they nodded and walked over to the bicycle racks to chain up Melina's bicycle. When Melina was finished, the five girls walked over to the gymnasium: the setting for the ceremony.

* * *

Applause echoed throughout the gymnasium, as the new English teacher, Takano Aoi was introduced to the student body. Many of the boys swooned at the beautiful English teacher. She went to sit beside the school nurse, Ayukawa Sakura. Other than the boys swooning over a hot teacher, the ceremony was long and very boring. However, the most strangest occurrence was most of the gymnasium was filled with students and the other half - where the girls were standing at - was empty. The girls were wondering where the other students, 3-D was placed.

Soon, a woman dressed in conservative black clothing with an air of coldness and ultimate authority rose from her chair and walked over to the microphone. The woman seemed to be a no-nonsensical leader, who received respect from her peers with her aloof gaze and fear. She was the Chairman of Akadou, Akagi Ryoko. When she opened her mouth, the teachers and even most of the students straightened themselves and gave her their undivided attention.

"During the Westernization of Japan, my grandfather, Akagi Matahachi created this school under the foundation that the young citizens of the country should be given a chance to receive an education. Throughout the decades, only males were allowed to attend Akadou Gakuen. This year, the tradition will change."

Chairman Akagi paused, shifting her eyes towards the only young girls in the gymnasium. She continued, "My colleague, the head of Elize Girls' School, Sumiyama Yukina allowed a few of her students to attend Akadou for the year. I hope after this experience, the school will be able to become a Co-ed institution. Please treat these girls as with the same respect and kindness as your male peers. Thank you for listening." Chairman Akagi took a step back and bowed before going back to her seat, which was next to the vice principal (Sawatari? Sarutari?).

Everyone stared at the five young woman, who was standing at the empty side of the gymnasium. Some of them looked at the girls in sympathy for standing in the spot, where their assigned class is supposed to be. Others looked curious and few gazed up and down at their figures.

Naoko, Hikari, Melina; Ayumu, and Kyou were all wondering the same thought: What did they get themselves into?

* * *

Shortly afterwards, the opening ceremony was over and the student body headed for class. The girls' class, 3-D was in a messy hallway that looked deserted. There was trash on the floor, graffiti on the walls, and the girls could hear yelling down the hallway when they inched closer to the classroom.

"Oh God, where are we?" shivered Ayumu as she heard the shouts.

The girls stopped when they heard Ayumu shriek. They noticed that her shoe was on something green and sticky. Ayumu tugged on her shoe hard to be free of the unknown substance. Once she was free, Ayumu looked under her shoe and saw that some of the goop was still on her shoe. "Ew, ew, ew..." she cried.

"Ayumu, it's fine." Melina rolled her eyes. "It'll come off."

Ayumu pulled her shoe off and stood on one foot with a sad, yet disgusted look on her face. "I just bought these shoes." she pouted. "Melina, you have to help me to get to class." she started to wobble, but she refused to have her pink Totoro sock connect with the floor.

"What? Why?"

"Because I don't want my sock to touch the floor. They're new too." Ayumu's eyes turned into puppy-like. "Please, Melina." she begged.

Melina looked over at the other girls, who just shrugged. The halfu girl sighed and helped her friend, who smiled in thanks.

Naoko was about speak, but she jumped back when a stool smashed through the classroom window. Naoko and Ayumu screamed, Hikari flinched, Melina and Kyou only widened their eyes.

"What the hell was that?" questioned Hikari, calming her nerves.

"Well, it seems a stool was thrown out the window." responded Kyou, looking down at the glass and the stool.

"I didn't ask for the sarcasm, Kyou."

"It wasn't sarcasm. I was just giving you an observation."

"So, uhh...do we go in or what?" Naoko asked as she looked at the broken window.

Melina sighed, "We might as well. It is our classroom." with a fearless visage, Melina opened the door and walked into class 3-D.

When the girls all walked into the class, their eyes widened at the scene.

A guy was parading around with a toy rifle (was that even allowed in school?). There were a few standing and messing around on top of the desks (that was obviously not safe). Two boys, one with an afro and straightened hair was doing...a very weird wave dance with their arms (what in the hell?). A bald boy was...doing something with a spoon (what the hell was he trying to do? Bend it?). Trash was being thrown around the room and many of the students were fighting. Way in the back, six boys (three on one side and three on the other) were having a stand off (were they about to fight or just stand there looking intensely at each other?).

"..."

Melina shut the door, but a little too loudly. The noise caught the attention of the whole class. Gasps and yells were heard all over the classroom as the boys asked the same questions repeatedly to the girls.

"Do you have boyfriends?"

"Can I get your numbers?"

"What made you come to this school?"

"Will you go on a date with me?"

As the boys were asking their questions, Kyou looked over at the boys who were standing on top of the desks and said, "You do know by the way you guys are standing on those desks, you will break your necks." then had a thoughtful look on her face. "Or crack you heads open."

The questions stopped and the boys pulled their desks away from the creepy girl with shocked (and a little fearful) looks.

Kyou's eyes gazed through the classroom, until she saw a familiar face in the back. "Mystery Boy."

Everyone followed her gaze and looked at Kamiya, who looked a little confused.

"Huh?" Kamiya Shunsuke said, intelligently.

"Yesterday, I knocked into you." Kyou responded calmly. "Then you manhandled me."

"Oh, you told us that you met a creepy girl yesterday." said a spiky blond, Honjo Kengo, when he came to a realization and pointed at Kyou. "Is that her?" then his eyes did a double take when he looked at Melina and his breath was taken away. The other girls near her disappeared and pink background with growing flowers and floating hearts surrounded her. He could have sworn her hear birds chirping also. "She's so pretty." he swooned.

"Honjo..." Ogata Yamato sighed and rolled his eyes. It should be known that girls like them would never give guys like them a time a day.

Kamiya looked at the black haired girl for a minute, then it clicked. "Oh! It's you! The girl who told me that I was going to get stabbed!" he pointed at her with a flabbergasted face, ignoring the confused (and slightly disturbed looks from his classmates). "What the hell are you doing here?"

"My friends and I are going to school here for now on." Kyou answered. "Since we are classmates now, we might as well become acquainted. Tachibana Kyou, please take care of me." she bowed a little to the boys. She turned to look at her friends, "See, I told you I was about to meet him again."

Hikari only rolled her eyes.

Kamiya would love becoming acquainted with the other girls. They were very cute with nice bodies, but he did not want to become acquainted with a scary and creepy girl, like Tachibana Kyou.

Suddenly the door swung open again, which caught everyone's attention. What came through the door and stepped in front of the class was...

A monkey in a red jersey.

Actually, it was the new vice principal, Sarutari (Sarutari? Sawatari?) who looked like he was in desperate need of a new stylist. He looked very nervous. No, petrified was a better word as he looked towards the class of delinquents.

"I'm Sawatari (Oh, Sawatari), starting today as Head Teacher of Akadou. At the same time, I'm also taking over this class." the boys just stared at him with a certain glint in their eyes. Then his gazed turned towards the new students. "Ah, I see you are becoming acquainted with your new classmates." he put on a fake, yet creepy looking smile on his face. "It's important for comrades to get along." the word _comrades_ seemed to have cause the guys to glare at Sawatari even more. "Take your seats." Nobody moved, just glared at him. "Take your seats!" Sawatari screeched.

The boys, who kept their glares on Sawatari sat down in their seats. The girls decided to take their seats near the back of the classroom. Hikari, Ayumu, Melina; Kyou, and Naoko wondered how this was going to play out.

Sawatari continued on his speech about how precious their last year of high school is and how all of them are going to achieve it together. He said all of this, while doing some weird dramatic movements and a fake, creepy smile. Seconds later, Sawatari was literally thrown out of the classroom.

* * *

After the Sawatari incident, most of the boys turned their focus back to the girls, dying to get their questions answered.

"Do you have boyfriends?"

"Um, no. We don't have boyfriends." Melina answered. She noticed a certain blond boy looking at her with a dazed expression.

"What made you come to this school?"

"Well, Chairman Akagi wants this school to become a Co-ed school one day. So, she asked our old head teacher, if she can send some girls over to see if it can work." said Ayumu, who was trying to find her handkerchief in her school bag to clean her shoe.

"Co-ed?" said a boy with blond streaks and black hair, Kazama Ren. "So, pretty soon..."

"We might have more girls coming to Akadou." finished a boy with spiky black hair, Kuraki Satoru.

The boys looked at each other for a second, processing the new information, before cheering out loud. The were chanting something about "Girls are coming! Girls are coming! Girls are coming!"

Yamato, who was seating in the back, just looked impassive. "Idiots." he mumbled. Yamato rested his head on the palm of his hand and watched his classmates act like complete doofuses all over the girls. In Yamato's opinion, he did not see the appeal in girls. Well, scratch that, he did like girls. He was attracted to girls, but that did not mean he wanted to waste his time being with them. All they did was cause drama, especially high school girls. It was probably something in their hormones or something to make them act that way. All in all, Yamato did not want to deal with some girl, who will cause him problems.

"Can you tell us your names?" asked Honjo. He really wanted to know dark-skinned girls' name. It was probably something pretty.

"Ah, okay." said Naoko, standing up. "I'm Sakurai Naoko. Please take care of me." she smiled kindly as she looked at the boys. She noticed a face that looks very familiar in the back of the class.

"How cute!" swooned the boys.

"Kobayashi Hikari. Pleased to meet you." some of the boys shivered, which received a raised eyebrow from the redhead. "What?"

"Hikari, you're glaring at them." whispered Naoko in her ear.

"Oh, sorry." Hikari lessened her piercing glare, but it did not make her less scary.

"You know my name." answered Kyou with her arms folded. "But I'll say it again. Tachibana Kyou. It's nice to meet you." she said blankly with an expressionless face.

"Scary..." the boys whispered. Kyou ignored them.

"Kochiyama Ayumu. It's nice to meet you." she smiled at the boys, before turning back her attention on the green stuff on her shoe with a scowl. "Stupid...green..."

"I'm Nakahara Melina. Nice to meet you." she bowed from her seat with a smile on her face. A lot of the boys had surprised expressions on their faces at the mention of her last name.

_Melina. It is a cute name!_ thought Honjo._ It sounds foreign though, but her last name is Nakahara. So, she must be a halfu._ Honjo pondered a bit before he blurted out, "Are you a halfu, Nakahara?"

Melina glanced at him with her mouth slightly open. She nodded, "Yes, my mom is from France."

A boy with a football raised his eyebrows in astonishment. "There's black people in France?"

"Uh, yes. Yes there is. _A lot_ of them actually." Melina answered the boy, who nodded with an understanding expression. He began to talk to his friend about the length of the girl's skirts on their uniforms.

"France?" Honjo asked. "Do you speak French?"

_"Yes, I do. I also know some Italian, because my ballet teacher always yells at us in that language."_ Melina responded. Whenever she spoke in her mother's native tongue, her accent changes a bit.

"Huh?" Honjo had no clue what she said, but it sounded hot. "Oh, I'm Honjo Kengo. Nice to meet you." he did his natural thumb-to-cheek hand wave with a smile.

Melina chuckled as she thought, _Well, he is pretty cute..._

* * *

Soon the boys went back to doing their own thing, which was playing with their toy guns or spoons. Ayumu was silently cheered herself as she finally found her handkerchief, which was at the bottom of her handbag and under her other junk. She failed to notice that her lip gloss fell out of her bag and rolled away on the floor.

"Oi, is this yours?"

Ayumu looked up from her shoe to see her pink lip gloss container and a boy with brown hair holding it. She can tell that he was at least a foot taller than her. "Uh, yes. Yes, it is." she took it from his hand. "Thank you." she smiled in gratitude.

The boy smiled, "It's no problem." he took a seat beside Ayumu. "My name is Ichimura Rikiya. You can call me Ichi."

"Oh, well, you can call me Ayumu, then."

"Ayu-chan is a much cuter name!" said the black haired boy, who suddenly came over. "Kuraki Satoru, at your service." he mocked a bow and sat by his friend. "But you can call me Kura."

"And I'm Kazama Ren." said the boy with blond streaks and black hair. He sent a smile to the petite girl, he sat down next to his crew. "And I can be at your service." Ren winked, which made Ayumu blush slightly.

"So, what are you doing?" Ichi questioned, he looked at her leg that was on top of the desk. He blushed a little as he thought that she had nice looking legs.

"Oh, I stepped on this green stuff that was out in the hallway," she held up her shoe and showed the boys the green slime that was on it. Even they looked disgusted. "And I'm trying to get it off."

"Why don't you just clean it in the bathroom?" Ren asked.

"Hmm, I don't know my way around this school, so..." Ayumu scratched her head in embarrassment.

"Oh, I can take you there, if you want." Ichi suggested.

"Really?"

"Yeah, let's go." he stood up from his seat along with Ayumu, who was standing on one foot. He looked confused, "Why are standing on one foot?"

"'Cause, I don't want my sock to touch the ground." she scowled at the ground. "There could be some more strange things on it."

Ichi just looked even more confused, but he shrugged and lead a hopping Ayumu to the bathroom.

"Ah, it looks like Ichi has a crush." teased Ren.

"Yeah. He's growing up so fast," Kura sniffled and wiped a fake tear. He looked over at the other girls. "So, do you have friends you can introduce us too?"

Hikari paused her mobile game and looked at the boys. "I don't know. Some might be interested. Although, they might put up an image in front of you instead of showing their true selves.

"What's that suppose to mean?" Ren asked.

"Since we went to an all-girls' school, the girls were more open and they didn't care about appearances. But when they were near boys, they would put on this image to impress them."

"Eh? Really?" started Kuraki. "I would rather have a girl be herself in front of me than being a faker."

Ren agreed with him.

"Hey," started Naoko, "can I ask you guys something?"

"Sure." smiled Kuraki.

"Who's that guy?" Naoko pointed at Yamato, who yawned.

Ren and Kura's expressions soured as they looked at the boy she was pointing at. "Him? He's Ogata Yamato. Why?" Ren almost snapped. Just thinking of that stupid bastard made his blood boil. The girls had questionable looks as they looked at the two boys.

"Ogata Yamato..." Naoko repeated the name in a whisper. _So, I was right._ "He was my old classmate in middle school." she blurted.

"Eh? You knew him?" asked Kura.

Naoko nodded, "Yeah, I did." Naoko snuck a glance at Yamato. He looked more tough and mean after five years. He'd grown taller and had longer hair. "He was..." Naoko bit her lip and grabbed her things before running out of the classroom.

"What the hell is wrong her?" Ren questioned, angrily.

Hikari shook her head with concern in her eyes. In fact, all the girls had concern in their eyes, even the emotionless Kyou. Hikari wanted to run after her, but she knew that Naoko liked being alone when she was upset. She wouldn't get an answer from the girl anyway. "I don't know." she said, with her eyes down casted. Although, she knew that it all had to deal with the boy named Ogata Yamato.

* * *

What's wrong with Naoko? She knew Yamato?

Next Time: Enter Yankumi and the Thief.


	3. Episode I - Part III: Enter Yankumi

Episode I - Part III: Enter Yankumi

Melina yawned as she pedaled slowly on her bicycle; Naoko was riding on the back as normal. Her feet hurt. A lot.

Her ballet teacher, Ms. Yamada was brutal yesterday. She looked like she was about to rip someone's head off. Melina guessed that Ms. Yamada was stressed out because it was almost time for the studio's _Giselle_ auditions. After classes she took care of her feet, had dinner, and did her exercises and practices until 12:30 AM and woke up at 5:30 AM to do her exercises and practices again.

Like it is every year, the studio was going to be hectic. But as always, Melina was prepared.

"You seem tired." said Ayumu, as she looked up from her mobile game.

"Yeah, I stayed up doing exercises and routines. We're putting on _Giselle_ for this season. A lot of girls are aiming to play the part of Giselle, so it's going to get crazy."

Hikari snorted. "Crazy is not the word I would use for your ballet class." Hikari and the others has seen the side-effects of ballet. From the blisters to the competitive nature, the word _crazy _does not even come close to describing it.

"But anyway, enough about me." said Melina. "What happened yesterday, Naoko?"

"What? What do you mean?" Naoko asked with confusion on her face. Melina was not fooled.

"Yesterday when you ran out of class. What happened? And don't try to act stupid."

The others, especially Hikari wanted to know about what happened yesterday. However, Naoko is the type of girl to not to talk about her problems to others, because she did not want to bother others. She would avoid the conversation, but Melina was very stubborn and would demand an answer from her. Melina's heart is in the right place as she was just worried for her friend, but she can be hard.

An air of silence has passed them as they continued to walk, but then Naoko sighed and bit her lip. "It was Ogata..."

"Ogata...?" mumbled Melina, trying to remember the name. "Oh! You mean the boy who looked like he was too cool to be in school? The one sitting in the back of the class?"

Naoko chuckled at Melina's description of Ogata. She nodded, "Un. I knew him...back in Junior high. We were actually friends."

"EH?!"

"Really?" asked Kyou with an eyebrow raised.

"He didn't looked like he recognized you, though." exclaimed Hikari.

"I know. It has been five years and if I remember right, Ogata's memory is not that great." Naoko giggled, then looked at Melina. "Did my answer satisfy you?"

Melina felt that there was something else. She could feel it in her gut, but she decided to ignore it and say, "Yeah, I guess so."

Naoko smiled, but Melina could tell it was fake.

* * *

"I'm gonna talk to her." declared Honjo with fire in his eyes.

Honjo and his friends, Kamiya and Yamato were sitting at their usual spot in the back of the classroom. Their other classmates were being loud and rowdy; throwing things on the floor and playing games. It was just a normal day in Class 3-D.

"Huh? Who?" questioned Kamiya, with confusion written on his face.

Honjo looked at his friend like he was stupid. "Nakahara Melina! The girl from yesterday!" With his accent, he pronounced the girl's name _Meh-ri-na_, instead of _Meh-lee-na_.

"Oh, the halfu!" Kamiya exclaimed. Of course, he remembered the girls from yesterday. Especially that weirdo Kyou. What was her deal? Was she out to get him, because he grabbed her a few days ago? She's probably the type of girl to make dolls with pins sticking out of them and put curses on people. Was she going to curse him? Kamiya tried not to shiver at the thought of the creepy girl. The other girls were cute, though. He could talk to them, and maybe even ask one of them on a date.

"Yeah, she's super cute." said Honjo, with a dreamy look on his face.

"Yeah, cute." snorted Yamato. He frowned when he thought of the girls. Those girls were going to bring a lot of trouble; having girls in a school filled with all boys was going to be bothersome. Actually, they were already a bother. Honjo claimed to like one of them. She'll probably break his heart. She'll think that she's too good for him and not worth her time. Despite being a stoic, tough guy, Yamato did not want to see his friend get his heart broken by some bitch.

Kamiya was...something with that emotionless looking girl. Tachibana, right? Yesterday, she did acknowledge him for a minute, then she ignored his existence. He ignored her, too, but Yamato could tell that she still affected him somehow. He was probably thinking that she'll curse him or whatever.

The other girls were becoming a little chummy with Skunk-head and his crew; Ichimura and the short one (Kochiyama?) were joking around together. He even showed her to the new girls' bathroom. What was it about girls that made guys whipped? Yamato did not get it.

However, there was one name that did stick out to him.

It was Sakurai Naoko.

When he saw her, Yamato recognized her immediately. She still had her black, loosely curly hair, round face, and large eyes. However, he noticed that her eyes weren't bright like they were five years ago. In fact, her eyes looked dim and tired. Up until she ran out of the classroom yesterday, he avoided to look at her. If he did, he would feel something hammering against his chest.

Naoko was different and was one of those private school girls. Yamato knew about those types of girls. Goody-two-shoes girls who were spoiled by their rich daddies that remained ignorant of their daughter's true nature of being stuck up. Those type of girls usually liked the bad boys to get a feel of the wild side. They go around breaking hearts and looking down on others. Naoko did the same thing in their Junior High School years.

Speaking of girls, the school door opened and the five girls walked in. They sat at the back of the room, trying to avoid being hit by a baseball or something. Honjo had his eyes set on Melina, who sat beside Ayumu and rubbed her eyes with a yawn. Honjo adjusted his blazer, fixed his hair, and checked his breath; Yamato looked at him and shook his head with a sigh.

Kamiya put his hands on Honjo's shoulders, tightening them and gave him a nod. "Good luck, man."

Honjo gave him a confident nod and amongst the rowdiness, he walked over to the halfu girl and said, "Good morning, Nakahara-san." he said, nervously. Moments ago, he felt confident but now that confidence went down the toilet.

Melina looked up at him and smiled, "Good morning. Honjo, right?"

"Yeah, yeah." Honjo smiled. She actually remembered his name! "I was wondering if you were doing anything later?" he shoved his hands into his pockets. It made him look cool and she could not see his hands slightly shaking. They were already sweating.

Melina looked a little surprised. She turned slightly and giggle with her friend, Ayumu, who was listening into the conversation, along with the other girls. Honjo was wondering if they were laughing at him. She smiled at him. "And tell me, why are you wondering if I'm doing anything later, Honjo?" Melina rested her cheek on her palm and waited for his answer.

Now he was more nervous. She wasn't one of those shy girls who blushed when a boy would talk to her. She was confident, which is something he was lacking right now.

"Um...I wanted to get to know you better and stuff..." Honjo said, sheepishly.

Ayumu and Melina giggled with each other. Kyou, Naoko, and Hikari gave each other a knowing look. Melina focused on him again. "Well, I have ballet practice today. So, I can't hang out with you after school."

"Oh..." Honjo could literally feel sharp spikes piercing through him. He didn't really want to believe that _this _time he would be rejected.

"But..." Melina said. Honjo piqued up. "Maybe during lunch, we can talk?"

Excitement spread through his body, Honjo grinned, "Yeah, that's-" _Play it cool. Don't act pushy._ He coughed, trying to appear nonchalant. "Yeah, it's cool. So, at lunch? Where?"

"Hmm...how about on the roof?"

Honjo nodded, "Sure, okay."

Melina nodded, "Remember, alright?"

"Oh, I will." trying to be cool, Honjo sent her a wink plus the finger snap and point move. She chuckled, which caused him to smile. _She thinks I'm cool._

"Well, I'm going to talk a little nap. See you at lunch." before Honjo could say anything else, Melina's head landed on her hot pink gym bag. She was out like a light.

Before Honjo could go back to his friends and tell him the good news, Kyou said to him, "We'll be watching." she wanted to insert fear into him, so that he wouldn't do anything funny. Not that she would spy on Melina when she was out with a boy, but she could still scare him.

Honjo looked at Kyou's emotionless face. Her dark eyes were piercing through him, Honjo tried not to shiver. Now, he could understand why Kamiya thought she was scary. He looked at the other girls to clarify if it was true. Hikari just shrugged as Naoko and Ayumu looked at each other and nodded at him. Man, these girls were difficult to understand.

Honjo went back to his friends with a smile on his face, there was a skip in his step. "We're going to talk at lunch."

Kamiya jumped out of his chair with a surprised look. "Really?"

Honjo nodded, vigorously. "Yeah, really."

Kamiya smirked, "Good job, Honjo!" he slapped his friend on the back before becoming serious. "Remember: Don't be pushy, have intelligent conversations, and no sexual jokes."

"I know. I know." Honjo argued. Then he smiled again. "I'm having lunch with Nakahara." he swooned.

Yamato just rolled his eyes, as Honjo and Kamiya talked about what the blond boy should do on his lunch date. He ignored most of the conversation.

* * *

As the boys were being loud and rambunctious and the girls were talking amongst themselves, nobody heard the door open and close or the footsteps that walked to the podium. They did not even hear the energetic _good morning._

"Good morning, everyone!" shouted a feminine voice, as she slammed her hands on the podium.

Everyone stopped to look at the woman standing at the podium. She was rather a small woman, appearing to be five-three; she had round glasses, her black hair was styled in pigtails and she was in a red jersey.

In other words, she looked pretty dorky.

However, the tone of her voice was strong and unafraid. She appeared to be confident and smiled brightly at the class of mostly boys and five girls.

"As of today, I'm your new homeroom teacher. My name is Yamaguchi Kumiko."

Everyone looked at the new teacher. The temperature just dropped by a thousand.

"My specialty is math. My nickname is Yankumi, incidentally single. Nice to meet you!" Yamaguchi continued with a smile.

Only a few seconds later, the boys went back of being loud, completely ignoring their new teacher.

"How is she going to control these fools?" Hikari whispered to her friends.

"I don't know. Hopefully she has a trick up her sleeve." said Naoko, who felt bad for the new teacher. She did not think that the boys were going to go easy on her just because she was a woman. She was still a teacher in their eyes, an adult, the enemy.

Yamaguchi just looked around the room to scan the graffiti and crude words. She just simply sighed and walked into the middle of the classroom. "Everyone, sit down!" she yelled, but the boys ignored her. She tried again, "Please be quiet! Quiet!" The boys did not listen.

"How can Melina sleep through this?" questioned Kyou, who looked over at the sleeping halfu.

"If a bomb was dropped, she would sleep through it." answered Ayumu with a snort, then she turned her head when she heard Honjo scream at someone.

"Don't fuck with me!" he yelled. He had his hands on someone's shirt collar and shook him violently.

The guy with the wacky hairdo looked scared as he shakily pointed at a chair. "Hey, hey, this is my seat..."

"I want to sit here though..." Honjo responded, with his tone in a mocking manner while pointing at the chair.

Kamiya thought the whole thing was hilarious. "Do it, do it." he encourages with a waving hand.

The wacky hairdo boy looked at him like he was crazy. "'Do it, do it?'"

"I said get out of here!" screamed Honjo, manhandling the guy.

The girls just looked at Honjo, then back at Melina and thought, _That's the boy she's going to have lunch with?!_

Honjo seemed like a funny, nice guy who was generally interested in Melina, but he is fighting for a chair. The wacky hairdo boy looked like he was going to shit himself. Honjo better watch himself, as he better not hurt Melina during their lunch date or the girls will have a talk with him.

"Honjo!" yelled Yamato, in a commanding voice. Everyone stopped and looked at him. Yamaguchi's eyes were filled with curiosity as she looked at him. Naoko turned her gaze on him with wide eyes. Then he snorted quickly before frowning, "Let it go."

Honjo sighed and threw the wacky hairdo guy aside before sitting on a desk. Yamato rose up from his chair with his hands in his pockets and scanned the class, his eyes were hard and intimidating. "What are you looking at?" he growled. The class turned their gazes away from him sheepishly and went back to goofing off. Yamato's eyes lingered onto Naoko's before she flinched a little and turned away. So, she was afraid of him. What did it matter? He didn't care. He needed to push her away from his thoughts. Yamato cracked his neck, trying to get rid of the annoying feeling in his chest.

Soon the door busted open, revealing Kazama and his crew, Ichimura and Kuraki. The three greeted their classmates with grins, and sat in front of the girls. Their happy faces immediately turned into sneers as they looked over at Yamato and his crew. Kazama and Yamato glared at each other, as their friends glared along with them.

Yamaguchi looked at both groups before stepping over to Kazama's group. The girls looked at their new teacher wondering what she was going to do.

"Hey, are you three tardy?" Yamaguchi asked.

Kazama's crew just looked at her, then Kazama looked over at the boy standing in front of his group. He asked, "Ah, Wakatsuki-kun?"

The boy in the army camouflage shirt flinched as he turned around to face Kazama. "Yes?"

"Who is this?" Kazama asked.

Wakatsuki saluted, "The homeroom teacher."

"I'm Yamaguchi Kumiko." Yamaguchi said, with a smile. "My nickname is Yankumi. Nice to meet you."

The three boys were silent for a second, until Kuraki said, "So, I was thinking that the new teacher, Takano is seriously cute! She's just as cute as our girls!" he sent a smile to the girls sitting behind him, then a wink.

Kyou and Hikari rolled their eyes, as Ayumu sent him a thankful nod and Naoko blushed a little. Melina slept on.

"I go for the nice bodies like nurse Sakura." swooned Ichimura, as he stood on the chair and did a so-called sexy pose. Kazama and Kuraki smiled in agreement.

"Like I said, horny fools..." Hikari whispered to Kyou, whose lips twitched a little. She thought the same thing.

Yamaguchi looked irritated that she was being ignored. Kuraki pulled out some cards from his pockets. "Let's play cards!" he exclaimed. "I won't lose today." he declared to Kazama.

"You'll get no pity from me for losing again." Kazama teased.

Kuraki only dealt a few cards before Yamaguchi took the cards away from him. "This is for break time, okay?" she put them in her pocket.

Kuraki frowned at the audacity of the new homeroom teacher. "Hey, that's mine. Give it back." he demanded.

"I'll just hold onto these for you." she said, not at all bothered by his tone.

Kuraki got up from his chair with a tsk and lifted his fist. Everyone had their eyes on scene. The girls widened their eyes as Kuraki proceeded to punch Yamaguchi, only for the teacher to duck quickly, causing Kuraki to fall onto the floor face first. Everyone, except Kazama, Ogata, Hikari; and Kyou jumped to their feet in shock.

"Did he smash his face?" asked Kyou. No one answered, as they watched Yamaguchi rise up with a coin in her hand.

"I found 100 yen on the floor." Yamaguchi said, innocently.

The teacher's tone was too innocent, Hikari noted. The boys scoffed and sat back on their seats. Ayumu and Naoko sat back down as well, still in shock.

"Hey," growled Kuraki, as he got up and dusted off his jacket. "Don't get cocky." he went to grab Yamaguchi's hand, but she caught it in mid-air and the two appeared to be arm wrestling. Kuraki tries to slam her hand down, but she forcefully lowers it and put the 100 yen coin in his hand like it was the most easiest thing in the world.

"You have to take care of your money." Yamaguchi said, with a smile. Kuraki pulled his hand away from her, bewildered. The new homeroom teacher just happily walked back to the podium, saying, "Alright everyone, take your seats! I'm going to take attendance!"

The girls looked at each other. Did no one else notice that? They scanned the room. Only Ogata and Kazama noticed the teachers' strength. They were confused as well.

Kuraki was so mad that he kicked the desk that was beside him. Obviously it wasn't a good idea, as Kuraki rubbed his leg that was in pain. "Ow, ow, ow! My Achilles..."

On the other side of the classroom, Honjo scoffed. "How lame..." Kamiya laughed along with him.

Kuraki heard it, as did Ichimura who quickly got out of his seat, glaring at Honjo.

"Who said that?!" Kuraki growled, looking around the room; rage was evident in his eyes.

"Yo~" Honjo gave him a mocking wave.

"It was you?" questioned Kuraki. Him and Ichimura was inching closer to the other side.

Seeing the warning signs, Ayumu and Naoko picked up Melina and moved to stand beside the wall, as Hikari and Kyou moved along with them. Hikari and Kyou stood in front of the three, like guards with their arms crossed. Melina slumped her head onto Ayumu's shoulder. How can she sleep through this? Ayumu will never know...

Honjo leaped off of the desk he was sitting on, flipping a chair in the process. "You want to fight?!" Kamiya stood by him, glaring at their enemies.

Kuraki and Honjo began to shove each other, as the classroom cheered them on. "Fight! Fight! Fight!"

Even Ichimura and Kamiya were shoving each other. Yamato and Ren just glared at each other from across the room.

Yamaguchi looked irritated, looking at the class filled with delinquents. The girls slowly inched towards the door and walked out. Nobody noticed that they were gone.

* * *

"A fight broke out?" asked Melina. She woke up only about half an hour ago and questioned what happened during homeroom. She was already told that Honjo was about to start a fight with a guy over a chair. Even though it was a little stupid to be fighting over a chair, Melina cannot judge him for fighting. She sometimes fought with people. Verbally and physically. Either with a few of the over-competitive danseurs and danseuses at the Yamada Studio or a few of the ignorant girls at her old school.

The girls were walking around the school, ignoring the whistles and catcalls. It was almost lunchtime, which meant that Melina had her lunch date with Honjo. They were beside the staircase that lead to the roof.

"Yeah," replied Kyou. "Honjo and Kuraki were fighting. Ichimura and Kamiya started to fight too."

"Yamaguchi looked irritated that they weren't paying attention to her." said Naoko, thinking. "Yamaguchi is a little weird, huh?"

"Yeah, she is." Hikari responded.

Melina was told about the abnormal strength the new homeroom and math teacher possessed. She had an air of confidence when she was facing the boys. Yamaguchi was not afraid of them, she looked like it was an everyday thing to deal with rowdy boys who liked to fight. Melina wanted to see the new teacher.

"Sakurai! Kobayashi! Nakahara! Tachibana! Kochiyama!"

Speak of the devil in red, the girls turned around to see Yamaguchi run towards them. Melina looked at her in disbelief. The teacher looked a little dorky and small. This was the teacher with abnormal strength? Her?

"Is that Yamaguchi?" Melina asked.

"Yep." answered the other girls.

Yamaguchi stopped in front of the girls and smiled at them. She looked nice, but is that really going to be enough to handle the delinquent boys?

"Good afternoon. I just wanted to see if you girls were alright." Yamaguchi clarified.

The girls looked at each other and nodded. "Yes, we're fine, Yamaguchi-sensei." said Naoko.

"Thank you for worrying." Ayumu added, politely with a small bow.

Yamaguchi's smile widened, "Wah~ It's so nice having such cute girls in my class! Their soft, sweet, and cheerful. Very different from boys."

Ayumu, Naoko, and Melina bit their lips from laughing. Hikari and Kyou, cheerful? Yes, when pigs sprout wings and fly.

"It must be overwhelming to be in a school for boys," Yamaguchi started, with understanding in her eyes. "but those guys might look scary and be hot-tempered; however, deep inside their good boys. So, you don't need to be afraid of them. But if they try anything funny, come to me. Alright?"

Yamaguchi spoke with such honesty. Her eyes told no lies, but truth. She is letting her female classmates know that she will take care of them. She was kind of like Akiyama-sensei, but less...well, Akiyama-sensei.

"Okay. We will, Yamaguchi-sensei." said Hikari. The girls nodded their heads in agreement.

"Call me Yankumi. All my students do." Yankumi said. She checked her watch. It was lunchtime. She wanted to go into the teacher's office and find information about the two leaders of her class. "I'll see you in class, girls." she gave them a smile and left them. The girls, especially Melina looked at her as she walked away.

"So, that's Yamaguchi." Melina said.

"Yeah," Ayumu started. "She's different. She's not afraid of those boys and she thinks that they're good people." she paused, remembering Ichimura. He seemed like a funny, and an actual smart guy. His friends, Kazama and Kuraki seem fun. Honjo was nervous when she spoke to Melina. He wasn't conceited or demand Melina to eat lunch with him and he did make her laugh. So, maybe they were good people? Good people with anger issues.

"Well, I got to go meet Honjo on the roof." Melina already had her hand on the staircase handle bar. "Wish me luck."

"No." answered Kyou, in her neutral voice.

"Melina be careful," said Naoko. "If he tries anything, scream or kick him in the balls."

Melina would have laughed at _Naoko_ saying balls, but she saw the hard glint in her eyes. She nodded, "I will."

When Naoko looked satisfied, Melina headed up the stairs.

* * *

Honjo was walking around the bench that was on top of the roof. He was actually nervous. Honjo doesn't get to meet many girls, unlike his friend Kamiya. They were either uninterested or afraid of him, because of his delinquent status. He really hoped that Melina was not stringing him along or trying to make him into a fool. She didn't appear to be afraid of him. She looked generally interested.

The door cracked open, Honjo stopped pacing and fixed his jacket and hair, Melina came out holding a lunchbox. She smiled at him.

"Hey," she said, walking towards the bench and sitting down.

"Hey, there." Honjo responded, still standing near the bench.

"Aren't you going to sit down?"

"Huh?" Honjo realized that he was still standing. "Oh, sorry." he quickly sat beside her on the bench, trying not to look embarrassed.

"It's alright. So, are we going to talk and stuff?" Melina gave him an amused smile.

"Oh, yeah, right..." He just took out the lunch his mother made for him out of his schoolbag. He opened it and it was filled with rice with furikake, fruits, vegetables; mini tonkatsu, and their family's tofu. Honjo tsked when he saw the tofu. He told his mother that he did not want it in his lunch. Whatever. He'll just not eat it. "Itadakimasu. So, you do ballet?" he ate a piece of tonkatsu.

"Yeah, ever since I was eight years old." Melina opened her lunchbox to reveal apple bunnies, carrot salad, mini onigiri; tamagoyaki, sliced bananas, and a slice of buttery and crispy baguette. As she ate an apple bunny, she said, "The ballet studio I go to is doing a Spring performance of _Giselle_ soon."

_"Giselle?" _Honjo looked confused. He knew diddly-squat about ballet, except for the fact that they were very thin and wore tutus.

Melina nodded. "In simple terms, it's about a poor girl who died of a broken heart after finding out her lover was engaged to someone else. Then, a group of magical women called the Willis who can make men dance to death, summon her back from the dead."

Honjo just blinks before saying, "Um...that sounds..."

"Sad, depressing, and weird." Melina finishes.

"That's a way to describe it..."

Melina smiles, "Well, a lot of stories back in the day were sad and sometimes downright disturbing, like _The Red Shoes_ or _The Little Mermaid_."

The two talked as they ate, Honjo had the decency to look a little horrified at the true backgrounds of _The Little Mermaid _and _The Red Shoes. _They moved away from the depressing stuff and talked about other things. Melina discovered that Honjo liked playing darts and arcade games, which she was enthusiastic about. She told him that she was a gamer girl and that she loved arcade and video games, but is not playing as much because of the _Giselle_ audition coming up soon.

Honjo and Melina talked about other topics, like movies and superheroes. Honjo discovered that Melina also liked American comic books and one of her favorite comic characters is John Constantine, who he has never heard of before.

Melina looked appalled, "Eh?! You never heard of...what?" she blinked at him, then she looked determined. "I'll let you borrow Hellblazer Vol. 1 to see if you'll like him or not."

Honjo nodded, "Okay, then." He'll read a hundred comics, if it meant spending more time with Melina.

Soon lunch was over, Honjo's frown was noticeable.

Melina looked at him, as she was putting her lunchbox in her hot pink gym bag. "You know, we can do this tomorrow if you want."

"Huh? Really?" Honjo's eyebrows raised in surprise.

Melina nodded with a smile. "Yeah, I actually like talking to you."

Honjo felt like he died and went to heaven. "Really? I-I like talking to you, too."

Melina tucked in a curl behind her ear, a nervous tick she has. If she was lighter, he could see her blush. "So, tomorrow? Same place?"

"Y-yeah."

They both smiled at each other before Melina said her goodbyes and left the roof. Honjo stood up with a wide grin.

"Yes!" he jumped into the air, fisting the sky.

* * *

When Melina returned to her friends, the girls walked back to their classroom, talking about Melina's lunch date with Honjo. The hallways of 3-D were quiet. Too quiet. Ayumu opened the door to reveal it being empty.

"..."

"What do we do now?" asked Naoko.

"We could skip out." Kyou suggested, crossing her arms.

"But...won't we get in trouble?" said Naoko. It was only the second day of school. She did not want to get in trouble on her second day.

The familiar voice of Yamaguchi echoed through the halls, the girls saw the red jersey wearing teacher who looked a bit miffed talking to herself.

"Oi, Yamaguchi..."

Yankumi stopped mumbling to herself and looked at her female classmates. She seemed surprised to see them standing in the hallway. "You guys, what are you doing standing in the hallway?"

Hikari simply pointed at the door, Yankumi's eyes showed confusion until she opened the door. Her classroom was empty. She could literally feel the coldness of the room, as she tread back and simply closed the door. Yankumi looked at the girls and sighed.

"Um...Yama...I mean Yankumi," started Ayumu. "We would like you to teach us. I mean, I'm terrible at math." she looked down sheepishly, shuffling her feet. "It might as well be a foreign language to me."

"Besides, I don't want to go home yet." said Kyou. Hikari and Naoko silently agreed with the emotionless girl.

Yankumi looked at her students with her mouth open in astonishment, then she grinned. "You called me Yankumi!" she began to ruffle Ayumu's hair, which she received complaints. She laughed, "Come on, let's go!" Yankumi opened the door and walked right in.

The girls took their seats in the front, Ayumu's mouth curled into a frown as found chip crumbs all over the desk. She scooped the crumbs into her other hand and threw them away in the trash before returning to the seat and taking out a mechanical pencil.

Soon Yankumi began to talk about mathematical formulas and write them down on the broad. Kyou, who was sitting beside her, whispered, "Out of the five of us, you're the best at math."

Ayumu just smiled, as she wrote down the formulas.

* * *

It was hours after school, the sky was dark and there was a slight breeze in the air. Hikari was at the 7-11 to buy groceries for dinner and pick up her mother's medicine. She should make a light dinner, but her mother was losing weight again. However, she knew that her mother, Yuki, would only take a few bites of dinner, anyway. Hikari sighed as she went through the aisle with her basket and picked items off of the shelves.

Moments later, Hikari was out of the store with the clerk telling her to have a nice night. She walked down the street, carrying both bags in hand and her wallet in the other. She could hear the buzzing of the street lights and mumbling conversations of the people who walked by her.

When Hikari turned the corner, she saw a familiar boy with black hair and blond streaks wearing an Akadou Academy uniform walking closer towards her. Kazama Ren had his head down and a hand in his pocket as the other hand held his school bag. He raised his head and looked a little surprised by seeing his female classmate.

"You..."

"Yes, me. Kobayashi Hikari and you're Kazama Ren." Hikari said.

The two were about a few feet away from each other, they were standing under a street light.

"What are doing out here?" Ren asked, curiously. Out of the five girls, Hikari and Kyou were quiet, mysterious, and a little scary (not that Ren would admit it). Although, Hikari was less scary when she wasn't glaring at everyone.

"Shopping." Hikari lifted up the bag in her right hand for indication. "What are you doing?"

"Just walking home." Ren answered, honestly.

Ren and Hikari were quiet, creating at an awkward atmosphere.

_Well...this is awkward... _Hikari thought. "Well, I'm going home. See you later." she began to walk by him towards home.

"Wait, I'll walk you home." Ren jogged up towards her and noticed her raised eyebrow. "It's dangerous for a girl to walk by herself at nighttime."

Hikari looked at him, then scoffed. "I walk home by myself a lot at night and nobody bothers me. Thanks, but no thanks."

"Look, I already saw you and if something happens to you...I just don't want to owe anybody." he looked down, not to meet her eyes, slightly kicking a rock.

The velvety haired girl blinked, a little surprised. He said that he did not want to be in anyone's debt, but it seemed that it bothered him to see a girl walk home by herself. "Hmm...fine, but don't tell people where I live."

"Why?"

"I don't like people at my house. It's small and I have a lot of stuff, so it's cluttered."

"I see..." Ren said, nodding. He understood. Him and his sister lived in a very small home with a lot of stuff in it. He didn't invite his friends over much at his house, because of it.

The two started to walk down the street in silence. However, the atmosphere was less awkward, but it was still too quiet for Ren's taste. Ren looked over at Hikari, whose sharp eyes were on the road. Maybe she was too shy to speak to him or arrogantly thought that he was not worth speaking to.

"So, do you live around here?" Hikari asked, suddenly.

Ren snapped out of his thoughts and said, "No, not really." he looked down at her shopping bags. "What are you making for dinner?"

"Beef and noodles. It's quick and easy to make." Hikari answered. "Answer me this, do you like to walk home girls at night or am I just lucky?"

Ren noticed her small smirk; she was teasing him. Ren snorted and put on his own smirk. "Only the pretty ones."

Hikari rolled her eyes, "Typical boy." then she looked at him. "Flattery will get you nowhere."

"It'll get me anywhere."

Hikari shook her head. "Right. You're just trying to be optimistic."

"Hey!"

Soon the two stopped in front of a small house with two giant trees in the front. The window blinds were shut tightly and it looked dark in the house.

"Well," Hikari looked up at him. "this is my stop. Thanks for walking me home." she put the grocery bag that was in her left hand into her right hand before digging into her pocket to get her keys.

"It's no problem." Ren said, looking at the house. He had a weird feeling about the house. Not a creepy feeling, but an unnerving feeling.

Hikari unlocked the door, Ren could see that it was completely dark in the house. He could make out a few things, but other than that it was completely black. The girl turned back to look at Ren. "See you later."

"Yeah, see you later."

She walked into the house and shut the door.

Ren turned to begin walking, but he paused for a minute and saw one of the lights turn on. It was probably the kitchen light, since she was going to make dinner. Why would she only turn one light on? He began to walk in the other direction, trying to get rid of the unnerving feeling in his stomach.

* * *

At Sushi Mizutani, Yankumi and the other female teachers, Takano-sensei and Sakura-sensei were sitting at the bar of the sushi restaurant watching their male colleagues act like total morons, but Yankumi was enjoying it as the men were doing some action. The other two women just rolled their eyes.

Sakura-sensei sighed, "Our school sure doesn't have any decent men, huh?"

"There's no chance of workplace relationships." Takano-sensei, pouted.

Sakura-sensei's sad demeanor changed as she grinned, "But you know, there are some cute students!"

Both Takano-sensei and Yankumi looked at her, like she grown a second head. "Huh?"

"Romantic relationships with students are absolutely forbidden!" exclaimed Yankumi, looking shocked.

"If you say stuff like that, you'll never get a guy." Sakura-sensei clarified.

"I suppose you're right." groaned Takano-sensei. Sakura-sensei nodded, satisfied that someone agreed with her. "I'll never meet anyone." she took a drink of her hard lemonade.

"You can't give up! You can meet people anywhere!" Yankumi said. "You know, it happens in the movies all the time. Two people bump into each other on a street corner. The moment their eyes meet, they fall in love!" she swooned. "Just like Romeo and Juliet."

"That only happens in movies." said Sakura-sensei, dismissing the fantasy.

"It's true, it never happens in reality." sighed Takano-sensei.

"Sure it does!" declared Yankumi.

"Maybe not." Takano-sensei and Sakura-sensei waved it off.

"I think it does."

The three women jumped slightly and turned around to see Baba-sensei standing behind them, looking at Yankumi with affection in his eyes.

He stepped closer to the pigtailed woman and smiled. "It does, doesn't it?"

"Probably not." said Yankumi, trying not to frown at the fact that Baba-sensei was standing so close to her.

Suddenly, the doors slid open and closed with a slam, making the four adults jump slightly. They turned their heads to look at the person who was causing the noise.

It was a woman with a tan complexion, long bleached blonde hair, and dark eyes. She was tall for a Japanese woman, at least two inches taller Baba-sensei who stood at six foot; the woman had a slim, athletic figure like she spends her time playing sports. She had black ink eyeliner and white concealer used as lipstick and eyeshadow. Her eyelashes were fake and had plastic facial gems around the sides of her eyes; her fingernails were painted lime green and yellow colors. She wore bright orange jean shorts with a white belt and a hot pink tank-top with brightly rainbow colored arm warmers, a yellow pearl necklace, and lime green converse.

"A Ganguro!" whispered-yelled Sakura-sensei, eyeing the woman's clothing.

The woman looked a bit irritated as she stomped to the bar and took a seat beside Takano-sensei, who looked a bit nervous to sit beside an angry faced person.

"Hey, Gramps, you know what to get me!" the tan woman shouted to the sushi chef.

Yankumi's mouth dropped a little. The woman, who appeared to be a bit younger looking than her was being disrespectful to her elders. Why was it that some young people could not give the respect that the elderly deserved? She was about to open her mouth to say something to the woman, but stopped when she heard the man laughed jovially.

The sushi chef and restaurant owner, Mizutani Teruki, a kind looking man with graying hair and small eyes, just nodded at the woman. "Coming right up, Akane-chan."

The woman, Akane, just grumbled and took out a pack of cigarettes and lighter.

"Rough day?" asked Mizutani as he started to make Akane's favorite foods.

"Yeah," Akane took a hit of her cigarette. "Stupid Onizuka. He asked me if he could be a co-coach for the swim team. I told him to shove his dick in a pencil sharpener, because he's not going to stick it anywhere else." then she grumbled about perverts, ex-gang members, and something about _'it's no wonder he hasn't lost his V-card yet.' _Mizutani just chuckled at her sharp-tongue.

"So, Yamaguchi-sensei," started Sakura-sensei, making Yankumi to take her eyes off of the Ganguro. "how are your female students? They are in class 3-D."

"My girl students are fine." sighed Yankumi. The three women ignored Baba-sensei, who was trying to get their attention, especially Yankumi's but failed. "I haven't seen any problems between the boys and the girls."

"You still need to watch them, though. At that age, boys and girls cannot control their hormones." Sakura-sensei explained, sipping her wine.

Takano-sensei nodded, "They are at the age where emotions are running wild and start having sex."

"But they're too young!" exclaimed Yankumi, gasping.

"But I am a bit jealous of your girl students. They get to hang out with the cute ones, like Ogata and Kazama!" squealed Sakura-sensei.

Takano-sensei and Yankumi just shook their heads. "I have to say though," said Takano-sensei. "it might be nice to have girls at Akadou. I can get more of a teaching experience of how to deal with both girls and boys."

"Is that so..." Yankumi said, in thought. In all of her years in teaching, she has only taught boys, specifically delinquent boys. Never girls. Girls were different than boys in many ways. They had different needs and mentality. Even though Yankumi was a woman, she mainly spent time with men. Her family mainly consisted of men. The Yakuza was mainly a man's world. Even her colleagues throughout the years of her teaching career has mainly consisted of men. The women she did interact with, though a few, were different from her. Sure, she got along with them, but when it came to purely women's issues, Yankumi could not understand it much. Even though, she did go through the physical changes of a woman, like the development of breasts and menstruation, but her mentality was different.

Yankumi could understand men, but women were a different story.

_Can I truly understand my girls? _Yankumi wondered, solemnly. _Girls who are on the path to womanhood? Can I truly understand them?_

"-iss. Miss!" yelled a woman's voice.

Yankumi snapped out of her thoughts and turned to the voice. It was the Ganguro, who was looking at her critically.

"Ah, yes?" Yankumi said.

"I couldn't help but to listen in and I heard from Pixie and Princess over here-"

"Pixie?!" shouted Takano-sensei, who looked a little offended.

"You think I look like a Princess?" asked Sakura-sensei, with a thoughtful expression.

"-that you have girl students attending Akadou. Am I right?"

"Um, y-yes. That's right." answered Yankumi, wondering what the Ganguro was getting at.

The Ganguro, Akane suddenly smiled and reached out her open hand to Yankumi, making Takano-sensei to lean back a little to avoid being hit.

"I'm Akiyama Akane. Nice to meet you."

"Um..." Yankumi looked at the tanned hand and shook it, unsurely. "I'm Yamaguchi Kumiko. Nice to meet you, too."

"You're confused, obviously." Akiyama pulled back her hand. "Let me explain. I know the girls you were talking about, because I was their teacher."

"What?!"

"You're a teacher?!" Takano-sensei's jaw hit the ground.

"The Elize Girls' School hired someone who looked like you?!" screeched Sakura-sensei, looking at Akane's brightly colored outfit, tan, and bleached hair.

Akiyama glared at the nurse. "What the fuck is wrong with the way I look?"

Sakura-sensei scoffed, "Well-"

"Um, so you were the girls' teacher?" Yankumi said quickly. She did not want to see a fight break out in the sushi shop.

Akiyama took her poisonous gaze off of Sakura-sensei and looked at Yankumi. "Yeah, I was their homeroom and World History teacher."

Soon, a large bowl of chirashizushi, a plate of oshizushi, and a Pink Lady was placed in front of the Ganguro. "Thanks, Gramps." she put out her cigarette on the sole of her shoe, grabbed a pair of chopsticks, and dug into her food. "So, if you want to know a little about them, I'm your chick." she pointed at herself with her thumb and smirked.

Akiyama seemed like an alright person, albeit...eccentric; she was offering help to understand her girls.

"Alright," Yankumi said with a smile. "it will be nice to be acquainted with you, Akiyama-san."

"People who are not my friends and who I want to punch in the face call me Akiyama-san. _You_ can call me Akane."

* * *

Hikari walked through the small hallway of her home with a few pills and a glass of water in her hands. She put the glass on the floor and moved a folded stack of her mother's clothing out of her way before picking up the glass and opening Yuki's bedroom door. The bedroom was dark, the curtains were closed, causing the sunlight to be uninvited in the room. Hikari wanted to open the curtains, but she knew her mother would react badly if she did. The bedroom was covered with clothes, including on the bed, where her mother was currently sleeping in. Boxes were filled with miscellaneous items, and other items were randomly strewn on the wooden floor. Her mother's makeup was messily placed on the drawers; there were even lipstick smears on the drawer doors.

Hikari walked in, kicking the clothes out of her way and sat on her mother's decent sized bed. She put the glass of water she was holding on the bedside desk and reached out to shake her mother.

"Mom, mom, wake up." Hikari said, gently.

Yuki groaned as she turned slightly and rubbed the rheum from her eyes. She saw her velvety haired daughter and gave her a small smile. "Good morning, Hikari."

"Good morning, mom. I have your meds." she held out a few pills in her hands and gave them to Yuki. "And here's some water." she grabbed the glass and held it out to her mother.

Yuki sighed quietly as she took the pills and drank the water and put the glass on the bedside table. She looked at Hikari, reached out and gently caressed her cheek with her thumb. "You're always taking care of me." her small smile grew a bit. "You're my best girl."

Hikari nodded as she bit her lip. She smiled a little, though it did not reach her eyes. "Yeah, I know. I got to go to school. There's leftover beef and noodles in the microwave, if you get hungry." Hikari got up from the bed and walked to the door. "Bye, mom."

"Bye, Hikari. Have a nice day." Yuki said, slumping back on her bed.

"Yeah," with that Hikari left the room, the house, and headed to school.

* * *

The five girls were sitting in 3-D when Ren and his crew walked in. Yamato and his friends immediately sent dirty looks, as Ren and his gang walked up towards them. The whole mood in that particular area changed from calm and normal to hard and icy.

"What?" said Yamato, not liking the fact that Skunk-head was standing so close to him.

Ren looked down at Yamato, his eyes filled with hardness. "Let's sort out once and for all who leads Akadou."

Yamato scoffed with a small smirk. He rose from his chair and said, "You want a one on one with me?"

"Yeah." Ren confirmed.

"Sounds good to me." Yamato glared at his enemy. "Let's do it."

"After school, come to Shirokin park."

Yamato and Ren glared at each other, as their friends also gave hard looks to each other.

Suddenly, Yankumi walks in looking very chipper with a slight blush on her face. "Good morning! Everyone take your seats!" As none of the boys were listening to her or even a where of her presence, Yankumi walked closer towards the six glaring boys. "Hey, what's going on? Take your seats." the boys still ignored her. "Can't you hear me? Take your seats!"

Seconds later, the door opens to reveal the head teacher, Sawatari and his follower Yajima. Their expressions were rather angry, especially Sawatari's, who glared at the room filled with delinquents.

"Head Teacher?" Yankumi questioned, confusion evident on her face.

Everyone in the room stopped what they were doing and looked at the head teacher. Sawatari had his eyes on Kazama.

"Kazama, come with us for a second." Sawatari ordered.

"What?" Ren asked, as turned around to look at Monkey-Man.

"Don't argue. Just come." the Head Teacher said.

Yankumi went to Sawatari and asked, "What's going on?"

Yajima said, "The police want to talk to Kazama about the serial muggings."

"Serial muggings?" Hikari said, rising from her seat. She looked at Ren, who looked back at her before looking at the group of teachers and his classmates. Everyone had their eyes on Ren.

* * *

Newspapers were on the table, the articles were about the serial muggings. Ren just stared at the newspapers, as he was slumped on the chair, directly across from the police officers who had expressions that said, _you're guilty._

"Tell the police where you were and what you were doing around 10PM last night." ordered Sawatari, who was sitting beside Ren.

"I didn't do anything." Ren responded, not looking at anyone. He wasn't afraid of them. He just did not want to see the accusation in their eyes.

"We're asking you where you were then." Sawatari said, frustration was heard in his voice tone.

Ren looked at him for a minute before turning his chair slightly and leaned forward on the table to look at the police officers dead in the eye. "Are you suspecting me?"

"No, that's not the case," said Officer Omiya, who was the officer with the straightened black hair and dark gray jacket. "It's just that the victims all say that the perpetrator looked like a high school student."

"You singled me out just on that?" Ren couldn't believe what he was hearing.

"Your build and other features match up as well with the description." continued Omiya.

"Huh?" Ren just looked at the officers like they were stupid.

"You were arrested for assault when you were in Junior High School, weren't you?" accused Officer Yamazaki, the officer with the perm and tan coat.

It was silent within the board chairman's office for a minute, but it felt like an eternity. There was a knock on the door.

"Enter." Chairman Akagi ordered.

Everyone turned to look at Hikari who walked in and bowed slightly.

"Please pardon me for my eruption." Hikari said, rising up from her bow and looked over at the police officers with a surprise expression on her face. "You..."

Everyone, especially Yankumi looked at Hikari and the two officers who were staring at each other. The silence was interrupted when Chairman Akagi said, "Kobayashi-san, please explain the reason why you are here."

"Yes," Hikari took her eyes off of the officers to look at Akagi. "I came here to tell my part of the story. About Kazama." the boy in question and Hikari stared at each other for a second, then broke it when the room was filled a laugh.

"Kobayashi Hikari," said Omiya, smirking at the young girl. "the last time I saw you, you had black hair. Going for the bad girl look, huh?" his only answer was a piercing glare. He sighed, "So, how's your mother?" he noticed that Hikari stiffen a little but she kept her glare on him. "That bad, huh? Last time I saw her, she was wearing a pair of pretty silver bracelets."

"If I knew you two were working on this case, I would have came here sooner." If it was possible, Hikari's glare became even more venomous. She ignored the curious glances she was receiving and focused on Akagi. "Ma'am, may I tell my half of the story? I want to see if it can help Kazama."

Ren just looked at her. His expression was unreadable.

"Chairman," began Yamazaki. "are you sure you want to take testimony from her?" his thumb pointed at the glaring girl behind him. "We arrested her when she was in Junior High for shoplifting."

Yankumi, Sawatari, Yajima; and Ren looked at Hikari in shock. Hikari tightened her fists, "That doesn't matter at the moment. I am here to testify for the defendant. I have the right to do so."

As the officers scoffed, Akagi voice echoed in the room. "Kobayashi-san, you can give us your testimony." the officers looked betrayed. Akagi ignored them. "I hope this is truly worth our time."

"Yes, ma'am." Hikari went over to stand beside Ren, who looked up at her. Her face was now calm and collected; if this was a real courtroom and she was dressed in a nice suit, Hikari would have looked like a lawyer. "Well, I guess I can start before I met Kazama on the streets last night. Last night I went out shopping for some dinner a little after 9:15PM. I left the convenience store around 9:35PM. That's when I saw Kazama walking in my neighborhood. He even took the time to walk me home." the officers looked a little surprised at that fact. Hikari continued, "I got home at about 9:50PM."

"Is that it?" Omiya asked, looking a little unimpressed.

"Yeah, but I have to ask you some questions." Hikari said. Omiya gave her a hand gesture that said _go ahead. _"You said that the serial muggings last night started around 10PM, right?" she received a nod. "And this all happened in Shirokane town, correct?"

"Yes, what are you trying to imply?" asked Yamazaki.

"Unless Kazama ran all the way to Shirokane town from my house, it takes about twenty minutes to get to Shirokane town from my house. So, he would have made it to Shirokane town about 10:10PM. Ten minutes after the mugging."

The two officers looked at each other and at the teachers, who appeared to be a bit stunned. Chairman Akagi just simply looked at Hikari with an unreadable, stoic face. Ren's gaze was on Hikari, wondering why she was even helping him. Did she feel that she had to owe him for simply walking her home? Although, Ren did feel like he was in some type of Gyakuten Saiban game or something. All Hikari has to do is to slam her hands on the table and yell "objection!"

Then Omiya just laughed, along with his partner. Hikari just glared at them, not liking the fact that she was being laughed at. "What so funny?"

"You are, Kobayashi." said Omiya, condescendingly. "You think that a simple ten minutes is going to change anything? It doesn't change that the perpetrator is a high school student of his build and features." he pointed at Ren.

Hikari scoffed. "There are thousands of male high school students with the same build." she crossed her arms. "Kazama's at the average height and build for boys his age. You can go out and literally see boys with his build in hallways. Hell, you can find them in our classroom right now."

"We have to also look at the fact that he was charged with assault in Junior High School," said Yamazaki.

Hikari rolled her eyes, "I bet you that half of the population of this school or any other school like Akadou has students that have assault charges on them. By your logic, I could be the suspect, if not the perpetrator for my shoplifting charge. Except that I'm a girl."

The officers fell into silence again, Yajima stepped in and said, "I'll ask again. Where were you last night around 10PM after you walked Kobayashi-san home?" he looked at Ren.

"Kazama, answer them." Yankumi encouraged.

Ren was silent as the officers looked at him. Hikari's eyes were hard as she stared at the police officers.

"I was at home." Ren answered.

"Do you have any proof?" asked Omiya.

"No, I don't." suddenly, Ren rose up from his seat, Hikari inched away from him and noticed his hard glare aimed at the police officers. "Now I'll ask you." he stepped closer to the officers. "Do you have any proof that I'm the perpetrator?"

"They probably don't." interrupted Hikari. "Finding proof would actually mean doing their jobs properly."

The officers glared at her. "Why are you defending him anyway? You're offering _something_ to him, aren't you?"

Omiya's tone indicated something lewd and how he was looking at Hikari made Ren grabbed him by his jacket collar with a growl. "What are trying to say?!" he started to jerk him around, the teachers quickly reacted by pulling Ren off of the officer. Hikari stepped in to stand in between Omiya and Ren.

"With that attitude, you'll only attract suspicion!" Omiya yelled, looking peeved.

Ren tried to get out of the teacher's hold, the anger on his face was evident. Hikari put her hands on his chest and said, "Kazama, stop! If you don't, then you will be arrested! Do you want that?!"

"Hikari-chan is right! Calm down!" yelled Yankumi, holding Ren down with her strength.

"That'll be it for today." Omiya said with a slight grunt. His partner, Yamazaki followed him out the door, but he sent a smirk to Hikari and Ren.

Once again, Ren tried to get out of Hikari and the teacher's hold. "Next time you come, make sure you bring some proof! Bastards!"

Chairman Akagi shut the door and sighed as she picked up the fallen chair Omiya was sitting in. "Having police come...that's never happened at this school!" her face was calm, but her eyes were filled with anger while looking at Ren.

Yankumi acted quickly, stepping closer to Akagi. "But Kazama didn't do anything."

Ren, who was standing away from the teacher and breathing harshly was wondering what the pigtailed teacher was playing at. Did she truly think of him as a fool to believe that she genuinely cared what happened to him. As if...

"Yamaguchi-sensei is right." said Hikari. "Those two so-called cops don't have any evidence against Kazama. Unless they find some proof, something I clearly doubt, Kazama is currently innocent."

"That doesn't mean anything. Being questioned like that," started Sawatari. "means his behavior has been problematic. That itself is a problem!" he screeched. He stomped towards Ren and sent him a glare. "To top it off, getting violent with the police is out of the question!"

Ren only smiled mockingly at him.

"Kazama-kun, I'm suspending you for a week." informed Akagi.

Ren looked...stunned. Only a little, which surprised Hikari.

"Wait a minute!" cried Yankumi.

"Perfect," said Ren with a scowl. "Suspicion or whatever, do whatever you like." he walked passed Yajima and kicked a trash can out of anger.

"Hey!" yelled Sawatari. His only answer was Ren slamming the door behind him.

Hikari followed him out of the door and surveyed the hallway. She saw Ren heading towards their classroom.

"Kazama!" Hikari yelled.

Ren stopped and turned around to see Hikari running towards him. He tsked when she caught up to him. "Why are you doing this anyway?" he shoved his hands in his pockets. "Just because I walked you home doesn't mean you have to owe me anything." he began to walk away from her.

"I know that. I just don't like seeing someone being falsely accused of something without any evidence." Hikari said. There was something else she wanted to say, but she decided against it.

"How do you know if I really didn't do all of those muggings?" Ren questioned, his eyes were still hard. It was obvious he was still pissed at the police and the teachers. The reason he did not mention Hikari was that he didn't want to involve her into his issues. He didn't like involving others into his problems, even his friends Ichimura and Kuraki. He can take care of himself. He didn't need anyone to look after him.

"Because...I-I can tell that you're a decent person." Hikari bit her lip. "I read people very well. And I know Omiya and Yamazaki, those guys aren't good judges of character."

Ren looked at her for a second. He was about to say something until he caught a glimpse of their pigtailed homeroom teacher. He scowled and turned away from Hikari and headed to the classroom. Hikari let out an irritated sigh and followed Ren, knowing that Yankumi was on his tail.

Ren slams the door open and stomped over to his desk to grab his school bag. Ichimura and Kuraki shot up from the desks they were sitting on, looked at Ren with wide eyes, then at Hikari whose friends were looking at her with wide eyes also. Yamato and his crew just sat in their seats, watching the whole scene.

Yankumi rushed in the classroom yelling, "Wait, Kazama." when Ren was about to leave, she intercepted. "Don't leave. Just calm down."

"I'd be fine with explosion, if they like." Ren told her, wanting to push her out of his way.

"Don't even joke about that." Yankumi told Ren. "Anyway, don't leave. I'll persuade the Chairman." she promised.

Ren wasn't going to fall for it. "I don't believe in what a teacher says." he sneered, walking right past her and leaving the room. Hikari wanted to follow him, but she knew he wouldn't listen to her as he was filled with rage.

"Hey!" yelled Kuraki, making Yankumi stop running after Ren. "Why don't you just leave him alone?"

Yankumi turned to look at him when Ichimura sat down in a chair and said, "What can teachers do?"

Yankumi didn't say anything. She just looked at her rowdy male students, who seemed to not give a shit that their classmate, comrade was about to be expelled. They should be rebelling right now. Her female students were standing with Hikari watching the scene take place, wondering what to do.

"Why?" Yankumi questioned with a little edge in her tone. She walked up near the podium and said, "How can you all be smiling?"

All of the boys stopped their rowdiness and turned their gazes on their homeroom teacher. Yamato appeared to be interested in what Yankumi had to say. It was probably going to be a sermon about friendship.

"A comrade who didn't do anything wrong was just suspended!" Yankumi yelled.

"Comrade?" scoffed Yamato. "We just happen to be in the same class. That's all." All of the boys seem to agree with him, which made Yankumi even more upset. They were even snickering at the fact that their teacher thought that they were actually friends. Melina took a step, wanting to say something, but Kyou grabbed her arm and shook her head. Melina looked at her for a second, then nodded and stepped back.

"Even so, don't you feel anything? Don't you think anything of it?" she looks at them with so much pain that Yamato was half-afraid that she was going to burst into tears.

"Not really." said Kamiya with a scoff.

"It happens a lot." said Honjo with a hint of a happy tone in his voice. He probably saw this as a chance to shove this into Ichimura and Kuraki's faces.

The boys seem to agree with him as they nod, voicing their opinions.

Yankumi pointed at the door, indicating that Kazama was out there, somewhere. "That guy was falsely accused and then tossed out! Don't you think that's wrong?!"

"Man, she's fired up!" piped up a student in the back. The boys, except Ichimura and Kuraki, laughed at her. The girls didn't laugh. In fact, Naoko and Ayumu felt sorry for their teacher, as Melina, Kyou, and Hikari just shook their heads.

"Why not rebel at a time like this?!" Yankumi yelled.

Suddenly Kuraki exploded his anger at Yankumi. "Quit the sermon already!"

Ichimura got up from his chair and slammed his hands on his desk. "Whatever we say won't change anything." there was a hint of sadness in his tone.

"It's not like you damn teachers ever listen to what we say anyway." Kuraki said with a scowl, pointing a shaky finger at Yankumi. His dark eyes were filled with hopelessness.

Yankumi quickly stood in front of Kuraki. "Is that why you're telling me to drop it?"

"Oh, by the way," said Yamato, standing up from his seat. "he was near the Shirokin tunnel at the time of the incident." Why was he voluntarily speaking to a teacher? What was wrong with him?

"Huh?" said Yankumi. Even Hikari looked a little surprised.

Now everyone's eyes were on Yamato. He might as well be the heartless enemy. "I saw him with my own eyes."

"Really?" Yankumi questioned.

"Yeah."

As Yankumi narrowed in eyes in thought, Yamato simply grabbed his school bag and began to walk out of the classroom. His friends followed him, Honjo gave Kuraki a condescending pat on the shoulder, in which the black haired boy shoved off. All of the other boys got up from their seats and walked out of the room, leaving the girls alone with their teacher.

"Yankumi?" said Naoko, almost reaching out to the pigtailed woman. "Are you going to be alright?"

"They can't really be like this...can they?" Yankumi questioned. There was confusion and a hint of sadness in her voice.

"Yamaguchi," started Kyou, looking straight at her. "how long have you been teaching?"

"Huh? About seven years, why?"

"Has all of your students been delinquents in the past?" By how Yamaguchi was unafraid of the loud, delinquent boys of the scary class of 3-D, Kyou guessed that she dealt with these types of students before.

"Well, yes."

Kyou stepped closer to Yankumi, her expression was its usual blankness but her eyes had a bit of hardness to them. "Yamaguchi, it's obvious that handling delinquents is second nature to you, but not every delinquent is the same. There are delinquents who just color their hair and get into fist fights then there are the ones who steal and stab people. If you continue to treat every delinquent like they are the same, then maybe you shouldn't be a teacher then." Kyou went to her desk, grabbed her school bag and left the room.

Soon the other four girls left the room, leaving Yankumi to her own thoughts.

* * *

Ren opened the door of his house and took off his boots at the front door. He was lucky that his sister was working at this time at the dentist office; he would had to explain where he was and with who. Like he would actually tell Kaoruko his business.

School has been out for a few hours. He wondered how Ichi and Kura was going without him. Knowing them, they were probably worried and felt hopeless. Ren couldn't really blame them. Even if they did do something about the true mugger, who would believe them? They were nothing more than stupid delinquents with no futures.

The homeroom teacher, Yamaguchi came over to his house, which was very weird. She actually took the time to go through his file and find out where he lived. And all she wanted was to know his side of the story. Ren didn't even know why he even spoke to her. _Just give her what she wanted so that she can leave. _He told himself, but every time he tried to convince himself of that fact, his insides would twist.

No, Ren couldn't afford to believe Yamaguchi. She was only acting like she cared about him. All of the teachers were the same, so were adults. The only adult he could truly depend on was his mother and she was gone forever. No matter how many times Ren told them that he did not steal a classmate's money or something amongst those lines, no one believed him. In their eyes, he was just a delinquent.

When he was about to head to the small kitchen to get something to drink, there was a knock at the door. Ren sighed. If it was Yamaguchi again, he'll slam the door in her face.

"What?" Ren said, opening the door. His eyes widened to see Hikari, who was still in her dark blue seifuku, standing there. "You..."

"Yes, me." she said, her voice tone was neutral. "...I came here to...you know." Hikari avoided his gaze for a second before looking at him again. "Can I come in?"

_She wanted to check up on me_, Ren noted. He wanted to groan, but he stopped himself. Ren turned his neck to look at the condition of his home; it was decent looking. He looked back at Hikari and stepped aside. "Come in."

Hikari's lips curved into something resembling a small smile. She walked in and took off her shoes at the door. She looked at the Kazama residence and decided that it was a nice small home, it was a lot cleaner than her house.

"Nice house." Hikari commented, sitting by the living room table.

"Thanks," Ren walked into the kitchen and dug into the fridge for a bottle of water. "Do you want some water?"

"Sure."

Ren came into the living room and handed Hikari a bottle of water. He sat beside her and cracked opened his bottle, chugging it down.

"Thanks." Hikari opened her bottle and started to drink it. She sat it down on the table and asked, "So, how are you doing?"

"...I'm doing fine." Ren said, then he widened his eyes a little. "Wait a minute, how do you know where I live?"

"Yamaguchi told me when I asked her." Hikari decided to ignore Ren's tsk along with him saying _"that damn teacher..." _Hikari looked around the home and noticed a picture frame with flowers surrounding it to her right.

It was the picture of a beautiful woman with short black hair and dark eyes. She was smiling brightly in the photo. Hikari noticed that she had Ren's eyes and nose.

"Is that your mom?" Hikari asked in a soft tone.

Ren turned his head to look at the photo, then appeared to be more interested in the table. His Adam's apple bobbed, "Yeah...she died years ago."

"Oh, I'm sorry, Kazama. I didn't know."

"I know. You don't have to apologize." Ren was quiet for a second then he asked, "Those cops, they said that they knew you and your mom. How?"

Hikari's eyes shifted from Ren's and looked at the water bottle she was rolling in her palms. Normally she would tell her friends not to worry about it or strangers to fuck off if they tried to pry into her life, but she was technically prying in Ren's life.

Hikari sighed, a little shakily. "Well, officers Asshole and Perm," Ren snorted with a small smile. "knew me from junior high when I started shoplifting. Omiya was my probation officer for about six months. After when my probation was done and over with..." she rolled the water bottle in her hands. "My mom was arrested for...public disturbance."

"Huh?" Ren said, stunned. "What did she do?"

Hikari was quiet, she took a drink of her water. "She was...being too loud." she chugged the rest of the bottle down.

Ren took it as a sign that she did not want to talk about it. "You know," he started. "when you were giving your testimony to officers Asshole and Perm," he received a smirk, which made him smile a little. "you looked like a lawyer in court. All you needed was a suit and a briefcase."

"Really?" Hikari looked down at her water bottle. Ren thought that she was probably blushing. "Well, that's good since I want to become one some day."

"You? You want to become a lawyer?" Ren looked at Hikari. Hikari was a very pretty girl, but she had dyed velvet red hair and did look like a delinquent chick. He could picture her being a part of a motorcycle gang, wearing a leather jacket. If she did become a lawyer and kept her current look, she would be the most unorthodox lawyer ever.

"Yeah, I do." she gave him a small glare, indicating that she did not like his incredulous tone. "I want to protect people who cannot afford a lawyer and those who are falsely accused. Maybe I can have my own firm, too."

"...Is that why you decided to help me? Because I looked hopeless?" Ren's voice had some edginess to it.

Hikari only raised an eyebrow. "No. I did it because you were innocent and the facts were there. Remember when I said I was good at reading people, I meant it."

Ren looked at her. He really looked at her. She looked genuine. Unlike Yamaguchi, who was a teacher and an adult, Ren did not have doubts that Hikari was being truthful which is strange because he'd only known this girl for a while and she hasn't done any shady shit to him.

Ren only nodded, "Right. Sorry."

"No, it's fine." Hikari looked at the clock that was on the wall and saw that it was almost 6:30PM. She's been here for an hour. "I better go. Mom will get worried, if I'm not home now." she stood up from the table and grabbed her school bag, walking to the door and putting on her shoes.

Ren also looked at the clock and saw that it was almost time for Kaoruko to come home from her day job. He did not feel like explaining to his sister why he has a girl in the house. He will never live it down.

"Wait..." Ren quickly got up and stopped Hikari from walking out of the house. The door was open and Hikari had one foot outside, the other one inside. Ren noticed how close he was standing near Hikari. He noticed how dark her eyes were and even a little mole under her left eye, which has been covered by her soft looking velvety hair. Ren even caught a whiff of her perfume. It smelled like vanilla and jasmine. It smelled really nice...

"Kazama...are you alright?" Hikari asked.

"Huh?"

"Your face is red. Are catching a cold or something?"

"Uh, no...it's...whatever." Ren waved it away with a hand gesture, then pushed his hair back. "Anyway, thanks for coming over." he couldn't even look at her in the eye.

"You're welcome. Maybe I can come back tomorrow or something, if you don't mind."

"Huh? Y-yeah, that's fine. Do you want me to walk you home?"

"No. Not this time and you might want to lay down or something. You're still red in the face."

"Okay, then." he wanted to walk her home, but he decided against it. He might not have the ability to form proper words if he did.

"Well, see you later." with that, Hikari stepped out of the Kazama home and walked away.

Ren closed the door and took a deep breath, letting out a sigh. This girl was probably going to be the death of him.

* * *

In Akadou's class of 3-D, everyone was standing in front of the classroom. The desks and chairs were pushed to the back and Yankumi was passing out some flyers to her students.

"I'd like everyone to help prove Kazama's innocence." Yankumi said.

Ichimura and Kuraki looked down at the flyers, then at each other and finally, the teacher. They looked at her with a mixture of expressions: curiosity, skepticism, and a tiny bit of hopefulness.

Honjo scoffed, "This...isn't he lying?"

"He isn't lying." Yankumi exclaimed.

"Why do you believe that?" asked Kamiya.

"I can tell from looking at his eyes." the pigtailed teacher said.

Kamiya walked towards Yankumi to the point of getting into her face. "I smell an idiot."

The boys, except Ichimura, Kuraki, and surprisingly Yamato wasn't laughing at Yankumi. The girls weren't laughing either.

Yankumi looked unbothered by Kamiya's insult. She just said, "Lend me your hand, please." she deeply bowed to her students.

However, Honjo howled throwing the flyer in the air, the other boys followed in suit laughing and walking by their teacher without a care. Naoko noticed that Yamato was staring intently at Yankumi, who sighed in disappointment and started to pick up the papers.

Naoko and Ayumu were the first to help Yankumi pick up the papers, then Hikari, Kyou, and Melina bent over to help.

"Thank you, girls." smiled Yankumi.

"It's fine, Yankumi." Naoko said.

The girls handed Yankumi the flyers. Hikari asked, "So, are you going after the culprit today?"

"Well, yes. I need to find the culprit as soon as possible."

Hikari nodded, "I'll help, but it can be for only a few hours. I have to be home early."

"I can help, too. I don't think my mom will mind." said Naoko, receiving a smile from Yankumi.

"I could work on my interrogation skills on people." Kyou added, earning a hesitant but thankful nod from the teacher.

"Sorry, Yankumi, but my parents need me for one of their projects today and the rest of the week." said Ayumu.

Yankumi shook her head, "It's fine. Whatever your parents need from you is also important."

Melina hissed, crossing her arms. "I can ask around the ballet studio, but I have to home afterwards. So, I can't be running around Tokyo all night."

"I understand." Yankumi said, nodding. "Yosh! Naoko-chan and Hikari-chan can take the area around Shirokin tunnel and Kyou-chan and I can take downtown."

"Hai!"

* * *

For the next few days, Yankumi and the girls, except Ayumu were running around Tokyo passing out flyers. Melina passed out some flyers at the Yamada Ballet Studio and even stuck some on the windows for passerby. A few of the danseurs and danseuses gossiped about how Melina was _slumming_ it with the delinquents. It took a lot of willpower not to knock some teeth out for those comments.

When Yankumi, Hikari, Naoko; and Kyou were out on the streets of Tokyo passing out flyers, some people took them and others only avoided them. Then there would be the ones who would take a flyer and throw it in the trash. Hikari almost tore people's arms for staring at Naoko's breasts when taking a flyer from her. The only one who was having better luck was Kyou, but she scared the people into taking a flyer.

Hikari visited Ren when she wasn't busy with the search for the culprit. They would sit down over a bottle of water and talk before she had to go home. At one point, Ichimura and Kuraki came over to Ren's house and caught Hikari walking out of the door. Kuraki teased Ren about it, which earned a shove and a _shut up._

There was even a day when it rained and Yankumi did not want her girls to be out in the rain, in fear of catching a cold. To Yankumi, her students shouldn't be getting sick on her account. Naoko gave the pigtailed a woman a cheap umbrella to protect herself from the rain and as she walked home, she could have sworn to see Yamato watching Yankumi intently. Yankumi didn't even use the umbrella and just gave it back to Naoko the next day with a thank you. It was obvious that Naoko was a little miffed about that fact.

It was another day of passing out flyers, Kyou couldn't come out to help (it was something about her parents), so it was just Yankumi, Hikari, and Naoko on the streets of Tokyo.

"So, how you guys adjusting to Akadou?" Yankumi asked, giving a flyer to someone who just threw it in the recycling bin.

"Hmm, it's different from Elize, I'll you that." replied Naoko, handing a flyer to an older man, who looked like he was about to touch Naoko.

Naoko flinched and backed away with her hand in her skirt pocket, Hikari automatically twisted his wrist and glared at him with a sneer. He flinched and jogged away when she released him.

"Are you alright?" asked Yankumi with worry in her voice.

Naoko had her eyes shut, breathing in deeply as counted quietly. "1, 2, 3...9, 10." she opened her eyes and exhaled. Naoko looked at her concerned teacher and friend. "Yeah, I'm fine."

"Do you want to go home? You can if you want to, Naoko-Chan." Yankumi said, trying to comfort the girl.

Naoko shook her head, " No. I'm good. Thanks for asking though."

"I don't understand men who do that sort of thing." stated Yankumi, trying to give a woman a flyer but the woman ignored her. She looked angry. "It's disgraceful." She gazed at Naoko and Hikari, "If something like that happens again, you tell me."

Before any of the girls could say something, Yankumi's phone started to ring. "Yes, Head teacher?...huh?" she hung up her phone and took off.

"Yankumi!" yelled Naoko, running after her. Hikari followed.

Soon the three ladies stopped in front of a police station. Then a taxi pulled up when they turned around and saw Sawatari waiting on Ren who was coming out of the taxi.

"Kazama!" yelled Yankumi, as the other two girls looked stunned.

Ren appeared to be calm and the head teacher looked pissed. Sawatari put his hand on Ren's back, making him to forcefully walk towards the station. Yankumi ran up to them, but the two males did not stop walking. Hikari and Naoko followed them.

"It appears I was too naïve, huh?" Sawatari said. "For thinking that you'd be able to control 3-D. These guys are trash after all." Ren and Hikari glared at him. "It's useless to teach things to trash and you're dragging the new students into your mess." he took a brief look at the two young girls as he continued to walk.

Yankumi stopped in front of him. "Head teacher!"

"Yamaguchi-sensei, you knew, didn't you?" Sawatari scolded. "That this guy was near the scene of the crime." his only answer was silence. "Apparently, the police heard it from Ogata Yamato."

"What?!" screeched Naoko.

"But, Kazama isn't the perpetrator!" Yankumi shouted.

"Whether he is the culprit or not, the police will investigate from here on out!" Sawatari yelled with a slight growl.

Everyone looked up at the police station, where six officers came out in formation. Omiya and Yamazaki were in the middle of the formation, smirking. They probably thought that they looked cool, but were obviously trying way too hard.

Yankumi ran up the stairs and shouted, "Detective, that guy only lied because if he'd told the truth, you'd have thought he did it!"

As the police were coming down the stairs, ignoring Yankumi, Ren yelled, "It's okay already!"

Yankumi turned to look at her student, "What's okay?"

Ren scoffed, "I'm used to this sort of thing." his eyes met with Hikari's for a second before avoiding her gaze.

"That doesn't mean you have to like it." Hikari said.

"That's right! You don't need to be used to it!" Yankumi shouted. The officers walked by the female teacher, ignoring her cries. "Detective! Lying was the only way for him to protect himself!" Officer Yamazaki simply grabbed Ren's arm, dragging him. "Isn't it us adults that made him that way?! Please!" the officers ignored her. "Don't drive Kazama into a corner anymore! Detective!"

As Yankumi yelled at the officers, Sawatari grabbed her, making her stay put. "Yamaguchi-sensei!" he just glared at her for a second and walked away, following the police officers.

Yankumi yelled out to Ren, telling him that she will save him no matter what. Naoko's voice interrupted her thoughts. "Ogata..."

Yankumi and Hikari turned to see Yamato standing near the police station. Hikari wanted to slap the fuck out of him, but before she could say anything Yamato dropped his gaze and walked away. Sensing that Hikari and Naoko was behind him, Yamato sped up his walk.

Hikari, who was normally calm and collected, just snapped. "You motherfucker! How could you do that?! Now, thanks to you and your snitching ass, they think Kazama is guilty and knowing those dumb fucks, they won't get off their asses to find the real culprit because God forbid they do their actual jobs!" Hikari let out a harsh laugh. She was letting out all of her frustrations out; the frustration from the officers and the people who wouldn't help Kazama when he needed it. "Ren is innocent and you just fed him to the sharks, you selfish, shit-face bastard! Hey, fucker, I'm yelling at you!" Yamato stopped walking, but he didn't turn to look at the two girls behind him. Hikari was breathing heavily, as she let out, "Naoko, talk some sense into this bastard! You knew him before right?! I know you've been thinking about him!"

"H-Hikari!" screeched Naoko with a blush on her face.

Either Hikari didn't notice her blush or even cared, she continued, pointing a finger at Yamato. "Talk to him. Now!"

Naoko looked at Yamato, who has yet to turn around. Even since seeing Yamato on the first day of school, Naoko has been wanting to talk to him but was too nervous to do so. She didn't even know where to start.

Naoko took a deep breath and said, "I-I don't even know if Kazama is innocent or not, but I believe in Hikari. Back in Junior High...I-I know that I..." Naoko paused when she remembered that Hikari was next to her. She bit her lip, "Just, please help us, Ogata." she begged.

Naoko was about to bow, when she saw Yamato ran passed her and Hikari.

"Hey, wait!" yelled Hikari with Naoko following her.

Yamato slowed down a little, "What? I thought you wanted to find the real culprit."

Naoko smiled, as Hikari lessened her dirty look she gave to Yamato and started to run with him. The three of them began their search downtown. There were weird looking dudes who looked at them like they were crazy, while the three looked for a skull necklace and tattoo.

Soon the three teens entered a nightclub filled with dancing and sweating bodies. Yamato was ahead of Naoko and Hikari, walking amongst the crowd, bumping into people. Hikari instinctively pulled Naoko close to her to make sure she doesn't get lost or taken away. Yamato bumped to a much taller guy with short black hair. The guy grabbed Yamato's jacket collar and pulled him to his face.

"Look where you're going, you bastard." the guy growled.

Yamato grabbed his jacket collar, glaring at him, "What?" then Yamato looked down at the guy's chest and noticed a familiar looking golden skull necklace. Yamato bit the inside of his cheek and swallowed his pride. "I'm sorry."

The guy sneered and shoved Yamato out of his face. He walked to the bar and ordered something to drink. Yamato took out Yamaguchi's flyer from his pocket and his hunch was correct. The bastard was wearing the same golden skull necklace.

"Ogata," Naoko piped up when she and Hikari caught up to him. She looked at what he was looking at, which was a guy sitting at the bar. "is that him?"

"Yeah," Yamato answered, not taking his eyes off of the guy. "I'll be back." he left the girls and went to bar, standing beside him. He ordered a tonic water and noticed that the guy had a similar looking blue tattoo on his wrist. This guy was the true culprit.

When the guy left the bar, Yamato followed him. The girls noticed Yamato following the guy and quickly went after him.

"You guys should get out of here." Yamato whispered to Naoko and Hikari.

Hikari glared at him, "We don't have to listen to you." It was obvious she was still a little mad at him for selling out Kazama.

Yamato just rolled his eyes, "Fine. Whatever."

The three followed the guy who turned a corner and went into an alley. When they reached the alley, it was empty.

"What the...?" Naoko said, bewildered. "Where did he...?"

Yamato ran into the alley, almost flinching when he heard, "So, it's you? You're the one following me around?"

The guy stepped closer to Yamato, who heard footsteps behind him. He turned to see two other guys come out of nowhere. Sensing the danger, Hikari whispered to Naoko, "Go find Yamaguchi. Go, now." she pushed Naoko out of the alley just in time before two guys surrounded her from behind. She looked at them with one word coming out of her mouth. "Shit."

Yamato, who appeared to be calm, said, "You're the guy behind the serial muggings, aren't you?"

The guy stepped closer to Yamato with a stoic expression. "So, what if I am?"

* * *

Yankumi was running to some stairs, still trying to search for her students. She saw a familiar head of black, loose curls running towards her up the stairs. Yankumi noticed something shining in the girl's right hand. It was a set of keys, each one in-between her fingers.

"Naoko-chan." Yankumi said.

Naoko was hunched over, her hands on her knees, breathing hard. "Ogata and Hikari...they were ambushed by the culprit and his friends!"

"Really?! Where are they?"

Naoko shook her head, "I don't know. Hikari pushed me out of the alley before I could see where those guys were taking them."

Yankumi was silent in thought, then she noticed some two guys at the bottom of the staircase. She rushed to them with her flyer in hand and said, "Excuse me, do you know this man?"

The guy with the blond hair and funky green shirt took the paper and looked at it. "Ah, are you looking for Hiro, too?"

"Eh?" said Yankumi and Naoko.

"Some kid from Akadou and some cute girls were looking for him as well. What's your relation to those kids?" asked the guy with short black hair, wearing a red shirt.

"Akadou?" Yankumi said.

Naoko gasped, "Ogata! Hikari!"

Yankumi's eyes widened. "No way." she looked up at the guys. "Where did you see those kids?"

The blond guy tsked, "He's probably being beaten up by Hiro right now or he might be having fun with that girl."

Naoko froze when she heard that sentence. The two guys walked by her and Yankumi, giving them their warnings. The pigtailed teacher's face became serious. "Where are they?"

"Who knows?" the guys mocked.

Naoko ran up to them, standing in their way. She was panicking. "You know don't you? Tell us, please!"

"Huh? We said we don't know." said the blond, getting angry. "Now, get out of the-hwah!"

Suddenly, the two guys were lifted up by the back of their collars and their bodies collided with some metal garage doors. Naoko's eyes almost popped out her head when she saw who was lifting up the guys.

"Where are they?!" Yankumi demanded.

* * *

Inside of a barely lit warehouse, Hikari was on her knees, being pinned down by two guys, trying to free herself. Yamato was being thrown around like pinball and getting punched in the face. He tried to fight off the men, but everything was happening too fast. Punches were being thrown left and right; he was also kneed in the gut. At one point, he was pushed to the ground and the culprit named Hiro kneeled beside Yamato and grabbed his hair, lifting up his bloodied face.

"Have you learned your lesson, yet?" Hiro asked.

"Because of you, someone has been falsely accused!" shouted Yamato.

"So what?" replied Hiro.

Yamato grabbed Hiro by his jacket collar, pulling himself up with a groan from the pain. "I'm going to...take you to the cops."

Hiro simply shoved Yamato out of his face. As Yamato's body rolled, Hiro screamed, "Don't fuck with me!" he began to kick Yamato in the stomach.

Yamato rolled over onto his stomach, coughing and heaving in pain from the kicks and punches. Hiro's crew laughed and mocked Yamato; when Hiro was about to kick Yamato again, Hikari screamed, "Stop it already, you sadistic fuck!" she struggled against the men.

The men looked at her and laughed along with Hiro. Hiro smirked when he saw Hikari struggle against his friends. "Your girlfriend still has some fight in her! Cute and feisty!" he stepped closer to Yamato. "When I'm done with you, watch me have some fun with her."

Yamato coughed, "Stay away from her. Your fight is with me, you fucker!" He heaved when Hiro kicked him again.

Something ignited in Hikari, her arms moved wildly, she got out of the guy's hold and jumped on Hiro's back. "I told you to stop it, you bastard!" her arms wrapped around his neck, she then bit his ear. Hiro howled in pain, using his strength to push Hikari to the ground.

Hiro's palm went up to his bitten ear. He hissed when he saw his blood on his hands. Hikari wiped his blood off of her lips. Without seeing it, Hiro socked her in face, making her face almost hit the ground.

"You bitch! I'm gonna-!" Hiro almost grabbed Hikari's skirt, but he paused when he heard a loud banging noise.

Hiro left the two teens on the floor and watched the metal door move along with the banging noise. The noise made Hiro's crew step back in fear. It was probably a whole gang or something.

The door burst open, making the large containers and other items fall on the ground. Hiro's men looked scared. They watched the warehouse metal doors opening to see a figure coming out of the smoke.

Yamato and Hikari looked over with widened eyes, wondering who could it be. It was the figure of a small woman coming forth. Yankumi was standing at the entrance with a serious, fierce expression.

The men looked at each other in disbelief, they relaxed a little when looking at the small woman.

Yankumi looked over at her two students, "Ogata, Hikari-chan, you..." she noticed that Ogata slowly passed out from exhaustion. She slowly walked to Hiro and his men. With each step, Hikari could feel the threatening aura coming her teacher. "So many adults ganging up to beat up two high school students, and one of them being a girl." Yankumi let loose her pigtails. "You sure are pathetic."

"Who the hell are you?" asked Hiro.

"Me?" Yankumi said, a little mockingly. She took off her glasses and threw them somewhere. "I'm those kids' homeroom teacher."

Hiro scoffed, "Homeroom teacher?" his crew howled in laughter.

Yankumi whipped her hair, glaring at Hiro and his crew. "I'd like for you to give back my precious students."

"Don't give me that "precious student" shit. Don't make me laugh." Hiro said. "School is meaningless. They don't have much of a future after high school, anyway. I mean, this guy is no different from rejects like us. And that girl is no different from those high school bitches."

"Don't think of him as one of you!" Yankumi yelled. "And that girl is very loyal to her friends! In order to take responsibility for his actions, he came here." she looked over at Ogata. "Even though he was beaten this badly, he tried to save a comrade! And she tried to protect a friend! That's pretty respectable!"

"Don't look down on us!" screamed a big guy, dashing towards her with a lifted fist.

Yankumi dodged the punch, kicked another oncoming guy in the stomach. She grabbed the big guys' arm when he tried to grab her from behind and squeezed it. As the guys hissed in pain, trying to get out of her hold, Yankumi calmly said, "Whether you're dog-ass or half-assed, you can always start over!" she shoved the guy away from her.

Another dude, who called her a bitch, tried to kick her in the face, but she stepped aside and landed a few strong punches on him. He fell to the ground, Yankumi stepped closer to Hiro and his crew. "Let me tell you, if it's to protect my precious students...I won't hold back."

Hiro, who still wasn't afraid of the strong woman standing in front of him, only said, "Shut up already!"

In a flash, Hiro's men ganged up on Yankumi, but she wasn't afraid. She gave them punches and kicks, when there were guys who grabbed her, she would shove them away from her. Soon all of Hiro's men were on the ground, either bleeding or groaning in pain. Hiro was the only one standing; he tried to look confident, but he backed away from Yankumi who stepped closer towards him.

Hikari almost gasped when she saw Hiro pick up a pipe and swing it at Yankumi. The pigtailed teacher dodged the pipe swings and disappeared from his line of vision.

"I'm over here."

Hiro flinched and turned around to see Yankumi standing behind him. He swung his pipe, Yankumi simply grabbed it with one hand. She lowered the pipe, Hiro tried to raise it back up, but Yankumi took it out of his hands and punched him in the gut. The punch literally knocked the wind out of Hiro, he was lifted up a couple of feet from the ground. He landed on the ground with a grunt, passing out instantly.

Yankumi looked over at Ogata and Hikari, whose mouth hit the ground. Yankumi walked up towards her, crouched down, and gently smiled at her. "Are you hurt?"

Hikari moved her cheek and hissed a little, while touching it. "Yeah, I'm fine." she glanced at Yamato, who was still passed out then at Yankumi. "How are you so strong?"

Yankumi kept her smile, "I wanted to protect something important to me." she stood up and held out her hand to Hikari.

Hikari took the hand and got up from the ground with a grunt. She dusted off her skirt and looked around the warehouse. "Where's..."

"Oh my gosh! Are you guys alright?!" cried Naoko, who came running in. She took a look at Yamato and immediately knelt by him. "Is he going to be okay?"

"He'll be fine. Let's get out of here." Yankumi grabbed the unconscious Yamato and carried him out of the warehouse with Naoko's help.

* * *

Yamato slowly opened his eyes. All he saw was blurriness and felt pain throughout his body. Soon his vision became clearer and he looked around to see a giant cherry blossom tree above him, the petals blowing in the wind. Yamato looked over to the side and saw Yankumi, Hikari, and Naoko sitting beside him.

"He's awake!" Yamato heard Naoko's voice beside him.

He sat up with a grunt and hiss. What happened? All he remembered was him and Hikari were in the warehouse with Hiro and his crew. Hikari bit his ear and he thought he saw a silhouette of Yamaguchi standing in the warehouse's doorway.

"Are you alright?" asked Naoko, kneeling over him. Hikari was sitting by her with a calm expression on her face.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Yamato waved off her worried tone and turned to look at Yamaguchi. "What happened to those guys?"

"Those guys?" Yankumi asked, innocently.

"The culprit." Impatience was noticeable in Yamato's tone.

"When I got there, they had already been apprehended." Yankumi answered.

"Huh? But..." Yamato paused, thinking of the person he saw. He could have sworn that it was Yamaguchi. It irritated him not knowing what happened, but he did feel something about Yamaguchi. He just didn't know what it was.

Yankumi just smiled at him, "You...going overboard." she looked at her three students. "Thank you though, you guys. For finding the culprit."

Yamato scoffed, "It had nothing to do with you."

"I just couldn't let an innocent person get in trouble," said Hikari, shrugging. She stretched her legs and smirked a little. "Besides, the look on those officers' faces when they found out that they were actually wrong."

Naoko just smiled. "I'm just glad I was able to do something."

"I'm happy, though." Yankumi told them.

"Huh?" Yamato said in disbelief.

"You believed Kazama, didn't you?" Yankumi asked him.

"I'd just paid for what I had done."

Yankumi was silent for a minute. She still had a smile on her face. "I see..."

Yamato sighed as he got up from the ground with grunts and wobbly legs. Yankumi asked him if he was able to walk home, while trying to help him but he quickly got out of her grasp.

"I'm not a kid!" Yamato yelled at her.

"You're not an adult either." piqued Hikari.

Yamato ignored her when Yankumi said, "Even so...you are one of my precious students. All of you. And Kazama."

Yamato was silent. He appeared to be in thought, until he scoffed. "Don't make me laugh." he picked up his school bag and walked down the hill, away from the three females.

Hikari tsked, "He's a hard-headed bastard isn't he...?" she looked at Naoko and Yankumi. "Well, we better get home. See ya, Yankumi." she began to walk down the hill with Naoko.

"Huh? You just called me Yankumi." Yankumi said, surprised.

"Of course!" Hikari yelled, not turning back.

* * *

In the early morning, the newspapers' headline was about the true culprits being apprehended and charged.

When Yankumi was walking to Ren's house, she was surprised to see Hikari heading the same way.

"Huh? Hikari-chan!" Yankumi yelled, running towards her.

Hikari stopped and turned around; her cheek was still swollen, but at least it was less red. "Good morning, Yankumi. You're going to visit Kazama too?"

"Hai! I'm glad that he's able to come back to school!" Yankumi chimed with a bright smile. "Aren't you glad?"

Hikari nodded, fixing her purse strap. "Yeah, I am."

The two continued to walk, then Yankumi asked, "You like Kazama, don't you?"

Hikari turned her head, like she had whiplash and glared at Yankumi. "No! We're...I don't even know."

Yankumi's smile widened, "Wah! You have a crush! You're so cute, Hikari-chan!" she ruffled a handful of velvety hair.

"Get off of me!" yelled Hikari, pushing Yankumi's hand away from her. She quickly fixed her hair and calmed herself. She glared at the happy Yankumi and said, "You know what, it's better if I just walk alone." she began to power-walk away from her crazy teacher.

"Hey! Wait, Hikari-chan!" Yankumi ran after her, yelling, "It's fine if you don't want to tell me!"

Soon the two reached the Kazama residence, Ren answered the door when Yankumi knocked. Once he saw his teacher, he quickly tried to close the door. It was too early for this shit. But Yankumi grabbed the door, causing a loud slam. That surely woke Ren up.

"Isn't it great that the culprit was caught?" Yankumi asked Ren, brightly.

Ren didn't look at Yankumi in the eye, though he did see Hikari standing behind Yankumi. She greeted him with a nod and noticed his eyes flashing when he saw her swollen cheek.

Yankumi was standing too close for comfort. He would rather have a certain velvety haired girl next to him.

"Yeah." Ren answered, nodding.

"Ogata helped us." Yankumi clarified. Ren looked at Yankumi in silence. Yankumi smiled, "Hurry up and get ready for school or you'll be late." When he didn't move, Yankumi pushed him into his house. Reluctantly, Ren got ready for school.

* * *

At Akadou in the gymnasium, the student body was there with the teachers standing in front of the stage. Sawatari was on the stage with a microphone.

"I have an announcement." Sawatari said. "You might already know this...a student from 3-D came under suspicion for the serial muggings. Thankfully, the real culprit has been captured, but even being under suspicion is a shameful thing!" he screeched.

All of the 3-D boys glared at the head teacher.

As that was happening, Yankumi was trying to make Ren walk faster towards school, but he didn't listen to her. He was walking beside Hikari, who he turned to look at and said, "Kobayashi...thanks for...you know..." he turned his head and shoved his hand into his pocket.

Hikari looked up at him and smiled a little. "You're welcome." she paused, looking away. "You know...you can call me Hikari, if you want to."

Ren was quiet for a minute, but the inside his stomach flipped in happiness. "Okay. Then you can call me Ren."

Hikari nodded and noticed that Yankumi stopped walking. She saw Ogata sitting against the brick wall of the school, touching his injuries.

"Ogata..." Yankumi exclaimed, surprised.

Ren stopped and looked up at Yamato. The three of them walked towards the brunette, Ren's face was full of uncertainty. Yankumi was the closest to him, as such, she crouched down at his level. "What are you doing? You'll be late."

Yamato just sighed, not answering her. Kazama stepped closer to Yamato. He was quiet of a minute before saying, "I heard you find the culprit."

"It's not like I did it for your sake or anything." Yamato answered, looking up at the sky. He turned his head to look at Ren. "I haven't settled things with you yet."

Ren rolled his eyes. Of course, Ogata didn't do it out of the goodness of heart. It was to satisfy his own desires.

Yankumi looked at both of her male students with a huge smile. It creeped Ren out. "What?" he asked.

Then Yankumi made a weird squealing sound, like she was going to explode from happiness. She jumped to her feet and ruffled Yamato and Ren's hair, "Yosh! Let's say you buried the hatchet for the time being!"

"Hatchet?" said Yamato, Ren, and Hikari at the same time. They were confused at Yankumi's sentence.

Yankumi gasped a little in realization. She shuffled her feet. "Ah, well, I just meant makeup. Yes, makeup."

"Yamaguchi-sensei!" Takano-sensei's voice as heard, as she ran towards the four. "It's terrible! Hurry up and come!"

As Yankumi ran along with Takano-sensei, the three teens stood (sat, in Yamato's case) in silence. Ren and Yamato avoided each other's gazes. Hikari looked at Yamato's face and noticed that his wounds were still fresh. When Yamato stood up from his spot, Hikari sighed and dug in her purse.

"Here." Hikari held out some antibiotic cream. "That cheap ass band-aid won't help you."

Yamato looked at the Neosporin, then at Hikari. "I don't need-"

"Take it. Now." Hikari ordered with a sharp glare. "I'm not doing this for you. I'm doing this for Naoko."

Yamato looked down at the Neosporin for a minute, then he took it.

"We're going to be late. Come on, Ren." Hikari already started to walk towards the gymnasium. Ren took one more look at Yamato before following Hikari.

Sakurai Naoko. Last night, she was about to tell him something, but she chickened out and kept quiet.

He scowled. He didn't give a shit what she thought or wanted.

He placed the Neosporin in his pocket and jogged to the gymnasium, where he met up with Hikari and Ren who were standing near the entrance, inside the gymnasium. Yamato saw Yamaguchi walking through a sea of delinquents and jump on the stage, looking down at her students.

"You guys," Yankumi started. "Clear your ears and listen carefully." Sawatari tried to silence her, but she ignored him. "You don't call yourselves comrades, if you're just hanging out together to have fun. Real comrades take each other head-on, have complete faith in each other, and develop a lifetime relationship. Don't live a meaningless life not knowing that much! You still have a lot of time until you graduate. It's not too late. Make some real invaluable comrades." she smiled at them. "I'll be with you guys until the very end. Don't run away!"

Everyone in the gymnasium looked at Yankumi; some in awe, some glared, and some took it as a challenge.

But there was this feeling. The feeling that this school year at Akadou will be different. Epically different.


End file.
